The Flower of Konoha
by LilithiaRW
Summary: Sakura is captured by the Akatsuki. Will her heart withstand as her loyalties are tested? And what else lies in store? SasoSaku, SasuSaku onesided, slight ShikaIno and NejiHina. Lemon warning. (As of 2015) Old story, not really interested in it right now. I'll finish it later, but don't expect an update anytime soon. ON HIATUS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN NARUTO**

**My first story! Please be kind! Lots of reviews please~**

**Updated June/July of 2012: Ugh. It's horrible! I can barely read what I've written without wincing. Yes, this story has been up barely a year. But I still want to edit it. So here I go.**

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><p><em><span>Chapter One: Captured!<span>_

Sakura woke with a groan. Her entire body was aching and she couldn't quite remember what had happened. When she attempted to put her hand to her head, she found that her arm was stopped. Wait- What?

Her eyes flew open. Looking up at the sky and wriggling her body, she discovered she was tied head to toe. Now the memories came back to her. Elder Chiyo. Sasori. The battle. She had taken out the evil Akatsuki member, but Elder Chiyo had been killed in the battle. Sakura felt a stab of sorrow. The woman had been… nice. A respectable old woman that had seen much bloodshed in her life yet kept fighting.

But what happened afterwards? Sakura attempted to lift her head, and felt a hammer hit the inside of her skull. Now she remembered. Sasori, with his puppet body, had resurrected himself while Sakura had tried to save Lady Chiyo.

Sakura had dodged his blades, aimed at her vitals in attempt to kill her, just as he had killed Elder Chiyo- his own grandmother! The mechanical coils coming out of his body had finally snatched her tiring body, wrapping themselves around her torso as she had leapt away from a spray of poisoned needles. She had bruised her arms hitting the steel bands wrapped around her to no avail as Sasori reeled her in.

_"Going somewhere?" he had mocked as she was brought face to face to his emotionless mask._

_"What are you gonna do now?" she taunted, kicking her legs to no avail, pausing as Sasori's face neared hers. "Does that nose of yours grow into a dagger Pinocchio?"_

_"Ha! The doomed kunoichi makes a joke!" he smirked, admiring the kunoichi's fiery green eyes. "But you are hardly in a position to make such accusations, my pretty."_

_"Oh but I do believe I am." Sakura smirked back at him. "What are you gonna do? Kill me? I do believe you were going to do it anyway."_

_"You have fire, I'll give you that." Sasori nodded. "It's a shame to kill such a promising kunoichi. And with your strength, you would have surpassed lady Tsunade herself. Such a shame."_

_Thinking of Tsunade, Sakura's mind clicked. With an imaginary light bulb turning on in her head, Sakura remembered going through the forbidden techniques that the Godaime kept hidden at her house. At the time Sakura just wanted to learn about the techniques so she would be able to defend against them should one of her enemies use them. Now one in particular came to mind. Sakura hoped she remembered enough of the technique for it to work; at least she had paid more attention to it then the others because she had found it so peculiar._

_It was complicated, but thankfully didn't require too much chakra; she was already low from the battle as it was. Sakura refocused on the killer in front of her. "Yes," she agreed with Sasori, "I'm not too keen on dying. Thankfully, that won't be today."_

_Sasori's eyes widened in shock, at first from Sakura's brazen statement, then when she shot pinpoints of chakra through the mechanisms of the coils around her, weakening the metal long enough for her to break through. Sakura leapt away as Sasori tried to recapture her._

_"Give it up already!" he called. "You can't last much longer!"_

_"Oh yeah? Well I sure as hell ain't going down without something for you to remember me by!" she taunted, a wild gleam in her eyes._

_Already Sakura was running around the cavern, dodging Sasori's attacks while secretly placing notes with signals all around the cavern where he couldn't see them. She paused now and then to carve the necessary symbols onto the walls, painting them with her blood when she didn't have enough time._

_"Time to stop playing with me!" Sasori growled as she kept dodging his attacks almost effortlessly. "I am nearing the end of my patience with you!" He threw more explosives at her, which Sakura dodged deftly, and even shot one back to Sasori, distracting him long enough for her to get close to him._

_Sakura leapt on his back and painted the sign on his back and forehead with her blood, then let him fling her off him. She rolled as his mechanical arm stabbed into the ground where she had been a second earlier. Sasori loomed over her; he hadn't noticed the symbols painted onto him, so preoccupied with the quick kunoichi._

_"You are making things very difficult for me, girl!" he seethed._

_Sakura chuckled as she met his eyes with her wild gaze. "It's about to get even more complicated, Akatsuki!"_

_She slid under him as his steel arms lashed out, using her kunai to draw a light line in the ground. Five more times she drew light lines in the ground under him, dodging the snake-like coils. They had caught her a few times, drawing more blood from her. But the blood covered the pentagram she had drawn, obscuring it from Sasori's view._

_"Bitch!" Sasori hissed as she jumped, landing on one of the metal arms and used it to launch herself into his face, knocking him back into the middle of the pentagram. He was momentarily stunned. Sakura began the incantation._

_"By blood, let me open the doors to the divine powers." She began. 'Kami this sounds so cliché', she thought to herself with a mental giggle._

_Sasori recovered and lashed out at her. Sakura kept inches out of his range, yet kept circling him to keep him in the middle of the casting. The fact that circling the target and that she had to circle him anyway to keep herself alive was not lost on her. A grim smile appeared on her face as she kept chanting._

_"Reverse all that goes against the origins of this creation." She kept a tempo with the incantation, even with blades pelting at her. "By mine own blood, so let it be!"_

"_What the fu-" Sasori stopped as he covered his eyes._

_There was a bright light as Sakura felt the jutsu or whatever suck her dry of her chakra, her mouth opened in a silent scream as the chakra was rent through her flesh, not even channeled from its proper points. She heard the faint sound of Sasori yelling in anger, but it was far away. All the symbols she had painted and carved channeled her chakra and even Sasori's chakra, which was being sucked from him as well. The chakras were focused on the source of Sasori's being, penetrating his soul._

_Sakura's mind faded to black just as the light began to recede…_

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

And now Sakura was bound and lying in the middle of the forest, staring at the sky turning shades of rose and orange as the sun set. She huffed. Someone must have captured her after she passed out. Wait. Sakura groaned.

Sasori must have recovered and captured her! Obviously he wanted her alive to ask her how the hell she had turned him back into a genuine human. Sakura smirked. She was never going to tell him. The Akatsuki could torture her all they wanted, and maybe she would even cave and tell them what she did one day. But Sakura was the star pupil of Lady Tsunade herself. She could take torture, if only long enough for Konoha to realize she was taken. And even if Sakura did give in to the torture, the jutsu, spell, whatever it was supposed to be, it was irreversible.

Sakura frowned. Tsunade would kill her if she were here. It was a huge risk casting a jutsu, and a forbidden one at that, and having no idea what the outcomes could be and using the last of her chakra. The amount of chakra that was sucked from her could have killed her alone. And collapsing during her only opportunity to escape Sasori? Tsunade would skin her alive!

'But Tsunade isn't here', Sakura reminded herself. And she was alone. Sakura looked around, wondering where her captors were. Should she let them know she was awake, or pretend to still be unconscious when they returned? She thought it safer to pretend to be unconscious. Then she could listen in on their conversations and figure out what they were going to do, where they were going, and hopefully figure out how she was going to escape.

Sakura realized she had been thinking of her captors as 'they'. She was sure Sasori would be one of her captors. But how could she be sure his partner had survived his own fight against Naruto? Sakura's mind was quiet for a second. She refused to believe those thoughts as an omen. At least that's what she kept telling herself.

Sakura heard the rustling leaves before the men entered the clearing. Her eyes were closed, and she kept her breathing even as if she were still sleeping. Behind her someone threw another log on the fire, and it hissed as warmth flared on her back.

"Still asleep I see." Said a familiar voice. Fear flared in Sakura, but she kept her face still. That was the voice of Sasori's partner, Deidara Iwa. He had been a dark blonde, with intense blue eyes and a devilish grin. From what Sakura remembered from her brief glances at him, his hair had flopped to cover the eye patch-like thing on his left eye. Half of his hair had been pulled into a ponytail.

Oh and she remembered another thing- His hands had mouths on them. Ew. Sakura suppressed a shiver, and sincerely prayed to any god that would listen that his hands never touched her. She sensed rather than felt him lean over her to get a better look. Her prayers became more desperate.

"_She's_ the one who ruined you, Sasori?" his jolly voice sounded closer to her than she had expected. Sakura almost flinched, but steeled herself to stay still.

"Shut up, Deidara." Sasori's deep voice communicated his displeasure at his partner.

Deidara laughed. "She doesn't look as strong as she really is, then. Such a pretty thing. It's a good thing you didn't kill her. I'm going to enjoy this lovely."

Now Sakura shuddered, though very faintly, hoping no one noticed the movement. Apparently no one did as she heard Deidara's footsteps shuffled away from her and towards Sasori's voice as he spoke.

"I only brought her so she will tell me how she… did this to me." Sasori growled. "Once I have what I want from her, I'm going to give a slow, painful punishment. And after that I'll kill her."

"Aw." Deidara sighed. "You're so brash, danna. How about a deal?"

Sasori didn't answer, but Sakura could imagine him nodding to Deidara to continue.

"How about when you've gotten an answer from her, instead of ruining that pretty skin of hers, you just give her to me?" Sakura could just imagine Deidara licking his lips. She shuddered again.

"She deserves to die." Sasori's voice was without emotion. Not that Sakura was expecting him to care for her well-being or anything, but it would have been nice to hear a direct 'no' from him. Even she could tell that Sasori was leaving the option open for Deidara.

"Thank you, Sasori." Deidara chuckled.

"That wasn't a 'Yes'." Sasori snapped.

"But neither is it a 'No'." Deidara said at the same time Sakura thought it.

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

Naruto and Kakashi met each other back at the place where Sakura had fought the Akatsuki member. The battlefield was a mess, with broken puppets everywhere and Elder Chiyo's body still lying where she had fallen. Both shinobi had been unable to find any clue as to where Sakura had gone.

"They have her!" Naruto growled, his face angry and worried at the same time.

"We need to get Elder Chiyo's body back to the village." Kakashi soothed him.

"Not without Sakura!" Naruto yelled at him, beginning to pace, throwing his hands into the air in random directions as if to emphasize his distress.

Kakashi gripped his shoulder to keep the idiot from running off. "Naruto, if Sakura were anywhere near us we would have sensed her. And we are both injured; no shape to go looking for her. We would only put both her and ourselves in danger. And we can't just leave Elder Chiyo's body here. Her village needs to know."

Naruto ground his teeth and clenched his jaw. Kakashi was right. The jounin walked over to Elder Chiyo's body and picked up the battered old body carefully.

"Come on, Naruto." He said. "That sooner we get back to the Leaf village the sooner we can begin to rescue Sakura. Grab Gaara-sama and let's head out."

Naruto glanced back at the battlefield and shut his eyes, trying not to imagine what might happen to Sakura. "Let's be quick then." He mumbled, grunting as he lifted Gaara's muscular body that had to weigh as much as himself. Naruto glanced worriedly at his friend, unused to seeing the redhead asleep. But Naruto's heart eased a little when he took not of Gaara's even breathing, and thanked the gods for small mercies.

At least Gaara had survived.

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

Sakura pretended to stay unconscious for the next few hours. From what she heard from them, they were headed back to the nearest Akatsuki base. But she couldn't pinpoint where that might be, so she had no idea what direction they were headed. Sasori carried Sakura's body over his shoulder in what was, in her opinion, a rather undignified fashion. Deidara was a very talkative person. From how he and Sasori acted together, Sakura guessed it was mostly to annoy Sasori. He referred to Sasori as his 'Danna', so that meant Sasori was the senior member in the partnership. She could also tell that Sasori was very pissed that he was now human, and out of most of his weapons, which Sakura herself had destroyed during their battle.

Che.

Deidara mentioned Naruto once, and Sakura was relieved to hear that Naruto had survived the battle. So the only person that had died during the battles was Elder Chiyo. And Sakura would soon join her, if she didn't get out of this situation soon. Again she berated herself for being so weak and collapsing like that. Deep down she knew that no one could have done better, Sasori was a worthy opponent, and she should be proud that she had accomplished a jutsu that few had ever done, let alone live through it. Yet her pride was still hurt.

Her own chakra was slowly recharging, and now Sakura gently felt for Sasori's, trying not to alert him. His own chakra, from what she could tell, was recharging as well, but was still very low. The jutsu had sucked him dry as well. At least she wasn't the only one here that was at her weakest. And she suspected it was the same for Deidara. One didn't fight Naruto without spending a lot of chakra. So everyone was recovering from the battles.

Ugh, this was so frustrating! If she only had more chakra, she could fight them off long enough to escape. But she knew her own limits. They were all exhausted. Sasori jumped over something and jolted Sakura from her reverie. Sakura bit her lip to keep from yelping, trying to relax her body before he noticed. They could have at least loosened the ropes when carrying her! The ropes were cutting into her arms and legs, and her nose was even with the small of Sasori's back.

'_Nice butt.' Inner Sakura thought grudgingly._

Whaaaaa? Sakura could not believe that thought enter her mind.

_Inner snickered. 'Even bad guys can be good looking. Remember that guy Tsunade had you assassinate a month ago?_

'And I still slit his neck. So shut up.' She told herself. Sakura mentally rolled her eyes at herself. 'Talking to oneself was a sign of genius', she thought sarcastically. Well, it had helped her figure out problems many times, so she never saw it as a bad thing. Inner did help put things in perspective when she needed it.

Now Sakura mentally sighed. The Akatsuki would be getting suspicious if she didn't wake up soon. She wondered how that would go. Maybe she should just fake unconsciousness for as long as possible…

That would prove to be five more seconds as something jolted her very harshly. Sakura yelped as her eyes flew open and she found herself on her back in a bed of grass. She wasn't faking disorientation as she looked around confused.

"Where- where am I?" she demanded, ignoring the black dots in her vision and the dull throbbing in her head as she scrambled to sit up. She already figured out that Sasori must have thrown her down.

"Oh, awake sleeping beauty?" Deidara asked, smirking. "You sure took your sweet time."

Sakura glared at him. But then Sasori filled her vision as he crouched in front of her, his bright brown eyes cold and angry. His red hair was messier than when she'd last seen him. He was wearing brown trousers and there was a towel around his neck. Sakura wondered absently where his shirt had gone.

"What did you do?" he demanded without pretext.

"Do? Do what?" She asked innocently, daring him with her eyes.

"Do you want me to hit you?" he threatened, his deep voice coming close to a growl.

Sakura threw her head back and laughed bitterly. "Go ahead. I've been tortured before, Akatsuki. A couple hits are nothing!" the wild glint was back in her eyes as she glared at him. "Besides, even if you did know what I did, it's irreversible!"

Sakura laughed some more in his face until his hand smacked her across the face, sending her into the grass below.

"Don't ruin her face!" Deidara called teasingly. The criminal probably didn't have any problems with Sasori hitting a girl. Well, they did kill people for a living. Sakura knew she could never see any of the Akatsuki as a person. They were all monsters who were once men. Ruthless and uncaring.

"Shut up, Deidara!" Sasori snarled. "She's my prisoner! I'll with her as I please!"

Sakura laughed grimly as she spat out some blood. "Yeah, do with me as you please. It's not like I'm a person or anything."

"Bitch!" Sasori cursed.

"Real original!" Sakura spat back. "I bet you're just bewildered because you've been without a _dick_ for so long that you don't know what to do with it!"

'_Good one! Sasori zero; Sakura one hundred!' Inner yelled triumphantly, punching the air._

Sasori reeled back as if she had punched him in the face while Deidara howled with laughter, literally falling to the ground clutching his stomach. Sakura allowed herself a small smile, yet her eyes still glared at Sasori. But Sasori soon recovered, and with cold eyes he grabbed her hair in a fist and pulled her up. Sakura let out a sound of anger and pain. She was thankful for having such thick hair to dull the pain over being dragged up by her hair, but it still hurt like hell.

"You will regret that, Konoha bitch!" Sasori said, punching her in the stomach. Sakura doubled over, gasping. He kicked her in the ribs, then grabbed her neck and jaw, forcing her to look at him. His arm was shaking from refraining from killing the Leaf kunoichi.

"You're just angry that I insulted your puppet-pride, and you can't come up with a comeback of your own." She sneered while she stared at his face, her body screaming in pain.

"Why you-"

"So easily goaded, Sasori." She scolded. "You seemed so much in control when we were fighting, but now you're panicking. Better watch yourself, Sasori. You may just blunder right into my hands."

"Ooooh I like this girl!" Deidara called between laughs.

Anger flared in Sakura. "Shut up!" both she and Sasori yelled at Deidara at the same time.

Sakura looked up at him, her eyes still full of that wild fire that had kept her strong for so long. If she could keep him emotional, he would be so much easier to control. And she mustn't underestimate Deidara either. Sakura knew she wouldn't be able to escape anytime soon. But she would study these men, and learn how best to manipulate them.

Meanwhile Sasori had stilled. Sakura could see she had hit a nerve with him, several, actually. He glared and kicked her hard in the ribs, then stormed off, muttering about bathing in the stream. Deidara was still laughing on the other side of the campfire. When he had recovered, he made his way over to Sakura.

"I have to give it to you, girl." He chuckled. "You are fierce. I haven't ever seen anyone throw Sasori off in such a panic. Not in a while, at least."

He produced something in his hand. It was small and white, and very suspicious looking. Sakura stared at him as he knelt next to her.

"Here." He pushed the thing towards her face. "Eat it."

"No." she said, keeping her mouth tight.

"If you want me to untie you, eat it." He sighed. "Look, you eat this, and I will untie you so that you can go to the bathroom and wash in the stream over there."

Sakura looked at him suspiciously. "What is it?"

Deidara shook his head, refusing to answer. Sakura sighed, and he quickly slipped the thing into her mouth. In her surprise, Sakura swallowed it. She cursed out loud.

"Motherfucker what was that?" she coughed.

"See? Not so hard. Now, don't attack me, I'm going to untie you now." He began to untie the knots, watching her body carefully for any signs of her muscles tensing for attack.

When the ropes fell away, Sakura jumped up and put six feet between her and Deidara. He quickly brought his arms up, expecting her to attack. He smirked at her. "Aw, don't be like that."

"Stay away." Was her response.

He shrugged. "Fine, fine. There's a stream for you to wash in over there. I promise not to follow or peek."

Sakura lifted an eyebrow at him. She was covered in blood and poison; she supposed bathing would be very welcome at this point. But she would rather take the chance to run away. She could always bathe when she was safe.

"And don't even think of trying to escape." Deidara said quickly, narrowing his eyes.

Sakura glared at him.

"What I made you eat was a tiny explosive." He said as Sakura gasped, looking at him with horror. "If you try to run, I will activate it. If you disappear for a long time, I will activate it. And only I can deactivate it. Now if you behave on our trip, when we get to the base I will deactivate it for you, and it will pass harmlessly through your system."

Sakura clenched her fist as he smiled like a mischievous boy. Without thinking, she was in front of him and punched him across the face. Her right hook sent him sprawling across the clearing they were camped in just as Sasori returned, his eyes taking the scene in lazily. In the corner of her eye, Sakura saw Sasori's mouth twitch in a small smile as he watched Deidara groan. Then he turned to her and approached.

"What are you doing untied?" he asked her angrily.

"Why don't you ask your partner over there?" she hissed, the spun around, calling over her shoulder, "I'm going to bathe. If you guys peek, I don't care about the explosive, I _will_ kill you!"

Sasori turned to face Deidara, not bothering to help up the blonde. Whatever he had done, Sasori did not doubt that Deidara had deserved it. If anything, Sakura had beaten Sasori to it. He allowed himself to smile mockingly at Deidara as he stood. There was going to be a bruise there tomorrow.

"Explain." Sasori ordered.

"I made her eat a little explosive to keep her from running away." Deidara winced as he spoke. "Damn, that's some right hook. I see why she kicked your ass."

Sasori ignored the last remark. "Good thinking, although I don't think you should test her by trying to peek at her while she's bathing."

Deidara's attention snapped away from the direction Sakura had disappeared, smirking at Sasori. "You know you're curious."

"No, I'm not." Sasori scowled.

"Whatever you say." Deidara cackled, turning away to unpack some provisions.

Sasori glanced at where Deidara had been staring, and thought he caught a glimpse of pale flesh through the branches near the stream. 'Only making sure the girl wasn't running away.' He assured himself. But somewhere inside him, a part of him that had been dormant for so long cackled at him.

'_Whatever you say.' It taunted._

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><p><strong>Reviews reviews reviews pwease! ~<strong>

**Update: Yay! Chapter 1 edited, nothing major, just some minor adjustments and a few tweaks here and there.**


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN NARUTO**

**Whoo-hoo! It's here! Actually it's been here, sitting on my computer… Enjoy!**

**Updated 2012: It's been two/three months since I updated Chapter 1. Time sure does fly!**

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><p><em><span>Chapter Two: Liar Liar<span>_

Kakashi and Naruto quickly reported the battle back at Suna, bringing with them the body of Elder Chiyo, and the barely-alive body of Gaara. Elder Chiyo's burial was under way and Gaara was put into intensive care. The medics informed Naruto that the young Kazekage would be as good as new once his body recovered from chakra exhaustion and the shock of being brought back to life. Kakashi sent a message ahead of them to inform Tsunade of the battles, Elder Chiyo's death and Gaara's miraculous recovery, and finally of Sakura's capture. Lady Tsunade was going to kill them for letting Sakura get captured- Kakashi was already mentally narrating his will.

Naruto set a punishing pace back to the Leaf village, and the rest of the Konoha teams had trouble keeping up. When they got back to the village everyone seemed to have heard that Sakura had been captured. Naruto, Kakashi, and Team Gai had been pelted with questions before they had even reached Tsunade's office.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU LET SAKURA GET CAPTURED!" Tsunade yelled at them the moment the door to her office was opened, nearly blowing everyone's ears off.

"We'll, uh, leave this to you guys this time." Tenten said nervously, teaming up with Neji to drag Lee and Gai away from Tsunade's blast radius. Naruto and Kakashi stumbled into the office, their ears ringing from the Hokage's initial verbal attack.

"We are sorry, Lady Tsunade."

"We need to begin searching for Sakura now!"

Kakashi apologized and Naruto yelled to Tsunade at the same time.

"I began to send out search teams immediately after I got your message." She told them, calming down a bit and drumming her finger on the desk anxiously. "But we have no idea where they will take her."

"I'll go-"

"No, Naruto." Tsunade interrupted him. "You and Kakashi need to rest. You will not go searching for Sakura until I say you are healthy enough. That is an order."

Naruto clenched his fists. First Sasuke and now Sakura! "Tsunade-"

"THAT IS AN ORDER!" she commanded, not in the mood to deal with an overprotective Naruto when her own protective instincts for her apprentice were going haywire. Tsunade's head jumbled with thoughts about Sakura, worry over the same things every five seconds. A migraine was already forming, and Tsunade couldn't wait to break out the sake when Kakashi and Naruto left the office.

"Go to the hospital. Now." She ordered them. When the door closed behind the two shinobi, Tsunade sighed heavily and opened the lower drawer of her desk, pulling out a familiar bottle. Covering her eyes with a hand, Tsunade desperately fought back the waves of hopelessness and loss.

Meanwhile, Kakashi and Naruto were escorted to the infirmary by Shizune, Kakashi trying to calm Naruto down as they went. Shizune made sure that Naruto and Kakashi were properly looked after (Read: guarded so that they would not escape the hospital), and left Naruto in Ino's care while she herself took care of the slippery Copy-Ninja (that scarecrow didn't dare leave the hospital knowing that Shizune would not hesitate to use a paralyzing poisoned dart on him).

"You're going to heal even slower if you keep twitching like that, Naruto." Ino said as she entered the room with Naruto's alarmingly large file. Grabbing the clipboard off of the wall, Ino reviewed the nurse's notes before beginning her own check up on Naruto, frowning at how Naruto seemed to twitch with barely contained energy.

Pausing in her ministrations, Ino hesitated before asking softly, "She'll be okay, won't she?"

Naruto calmed down and looked at Sakura's best friend. Ino's eyes were pleading for him to say something reassuring, but Naruto honestly didn't know if she would be okay. The Akatsuki were ruthless.

"She's strong." Was all he said.

Ino nodded, tears in her eyes but blinking them back. Clearing her throat, she glanced at the door to the room. "Do you mind having some visitors now?"

"Uh, sure." Naruto said in surprise. He hadn't been expecting anyone.

Lee was the first one to burst through the doors. "Is it true my beloved Sakura has been captured?"

"Shut up." Neji told him as he walked in. "Don't make Naruto more anxious than he already is. We were _there_, remember? Baka."

Hinata came in next, and Ino pulled her aside so they could speak about medical ninja stuff. Or at least, that is what Naruto assumed they were whispering about, but their faces were strangely neutral.

"Hey Naruto." Shikamaru greeted as he walked in. "You okay?"

"I'm fine!" Naruto growled. "I just wish these medical ninjas would see that and let me go search for Sakura!"

"You're always going off and ignoring your injuries." Ino shook a finger at him as she re-approached his bedside and glared down at him, daring him to try to escape the hospital under her watch. "You need to be at your strongest to rescue Sakura."

"Don't worry, we'll come get you once we find her location." Said Kiba as he walked in with Shino in tow. He then turned to Ino and complained, "Ino! They won't let Akamaru in!"

"This _is_ a hospital." She rolled her eyes at him. "No animals allowed.

"Sakura will be fine." Tenten said in a soothing voice when she finally appeared. She turned to Neji and Lee. "It's time for our team to start our search."

Neji, Lee, and Tenten waved goodbye to Naruto as they left, promising to alert Naruto the moment they found a clue about Sakura's disappearance.

"Our team will be joining the search as well." Shino's muffled voice rose from beneath his tall collar. "Our team should be reporting soon as well."

"Ino, Tsunade has some more papers for you regarding our previous mission." Hinata said quietly to Ino before she and Kiba followed Shino out the door. She waved shyly as she left.

Ino had a confused expression on her face.

"Something wrong, Ino?" Shikamaru asked a deceptively bored voice, but his eyes gleamed with interest.

"It's just strange that there are still more papers after the last mission…" Ino murmured absently.

"What mission?" Shikamaru asked. Naruto watched Ino curiously.

"The one Sakura, Hinata, and I…" Ino came back to herself and glared at Shikamaru. "Stop that." She snapped.

"Stop what?" Shikamaru asked innocently.

"Stop wheedling information from me when I'm zoned out like that." Ino huffed and crossed her arms defensively.

He shrugged. "It's your fault you can't keep your mouth shut about those classified missions Lady Tsunade puts you girls on."

Ino glared at her teammate. and then turned back to Naruto. "I'll be back to check up on you later." She said as she hung the clipboard next to the door and walked out quickly.

Shikamaru sighed and was silent for a long moment, interlocking his fingers and resting his chin on them in a thinking position. Finally, he spoke lowly. "Did you know about them?"

Naruto glanced at Shikamaru questioningly. "Know what?"

"Lady Tsunade created a team- Hinata, Ino, and Sakura- and for some reason kept it secret. It makes me suspicious. Those girls have… changed since its creation. But they hide it well." Shikamaru thought aloud, crossing his arms. "Hinata and Sakura have been tight-lipped about it, but sometimes I can catch Ino in the open."

"I… I didn't know." Naruto said, looking down at his hands.

"Really?" Shikamaru seemed mildly surprised. "I thought you might be suspicious at least. Not many people know about those three doing Tsunade's secret missions."

"How did you figure it out?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Well I noticed that Ino would act strangely whenever she came back from certain missions. And I noticed that those three had become more secretive together. I just put two and two together."

"Won't Tsunade be angry at you?" Naruto stared at him.

"She's a little preoccupied at the moment." Shikamaru said delicately. "Y'know, with Sakura missing and all. Besides, I'm just looking out for Ino."

Naruto stared out the window. What else had Sakura never told him?

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

Sakura grabbed some pine needles as she tore off her clothes. Angrily scrubbing her dirty clothes, laying them on the rocks when she was done, she began to scrub herself. She hated them feeling she got when she had dirty hair. If only she had shampoo!

Glancing back to where she came from, Sakura felt uncomfortable at just how close the camp was. She sunk deeper into the dark water, thinking of her shower back home with shampoo and conditioner and flowery body wash, anything to keep her from imagining what might be swimming with her in the dark waters. Sakura must have washed her hair forty times, yet without shampoo, she still felt dirty and greasy.

Looking at the sky, Sakura thought over the situation. Judging from the stars, compared to when she had been looking at them when traveling a few days ago to the Sand village with Naruto, they Akatsuki were taking her East.

The most important thing was to get some sort of message to Konoha. It had been a day at least since she was taken. Kakashi would have contacted Lady Tsunade already, and Naruto would be chomping at the bit to rescue her.

Sakura snorted. She hated to be rescued. The whole 'damsel in distress' thing was really getting old for her. Of course it wasn't always her fault. Bad guys just always took the female hostage. And somehow that always managed to be her. Lucky me, she thought sarcastically.

Returning her mind back to the matter at hand, Sakura wondered again where she was. How was Konoha supposed to find her? For the first time, panic gripped her. Sakura splashed more of the cold water over her face to keep herself from breaking down. She needed to be level-headed. She needed to stay calm.

'I need to contact Lady Tsunade', she thought again. Sakura threw away the pine needles, done with scrubbing herself. Watching them float away, an idea came to mind. Sakura went back to the bank, picking up her damp clothes. They were almost dry. She didn't want to put them on wet like she was, so she walked down stream and out of sight of the camp. If any of those men watched her, she would feel their eyes on her.

She ignored the uncomfortable feelings of being naked in the middle of a dark forest at night. Wringing her hair once more, she shook it out and began to re-dress. Finding a ponytail stashed in her pocket, Sakura pulled her pink hair into a short ponytail and walked back into camp, an idea forming in her head.

"God I hate doing that." She snapped loudly as she walked back into the firelight. Sasori and Deidara looked up at her. She crossed her arms and glared as she continued. "When do we get to the next patch of _civilization_? I'm not particularly fond of washing in cold streams at night in a forest. I didn't even have shampoo!"

Sakura grimaced as she put a hand to her still-grimy hair. Deidara snorted as Sasori looked at her doubtfully, their thoughts obvious: How does a girl who can't stand being without indoor plumbing become a ninja? To an extent Sakura did hate the part of missions without indoor plumbing, but in reality she never complained.

"Don't worry." Sasori said, turning back to the blade he was sharpening. "We will be close to a town tomorrow by noon."

Sakura had her answer. Tomorrow by noon they would be in a town. Hopefully something or someone there would help her contact Konoha. For now, she would let them think they had her. Only for now.

The next morning Sasori took the lead, and Sakura walked with Deidara slightly behind her. Her hands were tied in front of her, and her feet were roped so that she could walk, but would be unable to break into a run. She had rolled her eyes when they tied her up that morning.

"Is this really necessary? I mean, you _do_ have a bomb inside of me." Sakura shot dagger eyes at Deidara. He grinned back at her and shrugged.

_'Maybe if you glare long enough at him it will burn a hole through him.' Inner Sakura said hopefully._

'I wish.' Sakura answered.

"We still have to be careful of those kicks and punches of yours." Sasori said with a blank face as he finished tying the knots around her ankles. Sakura grinned too sweetly at him, and a look of suspicion crossed his face just as she brought her knee up as far as the rope would let her, hitting him hard under the chin.

Sasori fell back onto his rump, and stared at her, unused to the disrespect. Deidara started laughing hard, wincing at the same time because of the bruise Sakura had given him the previous night. Sakura grinned down at Sasori, leaning over him.

"Just say you need to be careful with me, period." She snickered.

Sasori rubbed his chin as he got to his feet, his eyes regarding her with anger, and a little bit of respect. "Don't push it." was all he had said. "Next time I will hit back."

"So will I." Sakura muttered as she was pulled along.

Now as they crested a hill, Sakura glimpsed a village not too far ahead. "Finally!" she sighed. "I could use a bath. I always love to take a bath after a good fight."

"Want my help?" Deidara asked her helpfully, moving his eyebrows up and down. "I could wash your back."

Sakura quickly elbowed him in the ribs, hard. Deidara moved out of her range as he rubbed the spot. "There is no way you are coming near me in any bathroom."

"You wound me, My Lady." Deidara faked a sad voice, placing his hand over his chest.

"Suck it up." Sakura shot back.

"Deidara." Sasori turned to him, glaring. "Stop talking."

Deidara pouted, but went quiet. Soon he was preoccupied with watching his surroundings, his serious face matching Sasori. They were in ninja mode.

"You might want to take off the ropes." Sakura suggested.

"Why?" Sasori asked dismissively over his shoulder, still watching the entrance of the village as they got closer.

"Uh, hello? Don't you think we look a little suspicious? I'm tied hands and feet!" Sakura waved her tied hands in the air to get their attention. Sasori and Deidara finally looked at her and realized their mistake, Deidara kneeling to untie her ankles and Sasori went to untie her wrists.

Sakura was more than just uncomfortable with the tall redhead looming in front of her and Deidara crouched behind her, both too close for comfort. Almost as if he read her thoughts, the moment Sakura felt the ropes drop away from her ankles she felt a pinch on her butt.

She yelped angrily, jumping in surprise, bumping up against Sasori. He caught her by the shoulders before she could fall backwards. Sakura stared up at him for a moment in surprise. The rope around her wrists was loose enough for her to slip them off, and she quickly broke eye contact with Sasori and swung around, slapping at Deidara's face.

But Deidara caught her arm and grinned at her. "I was expecting you this time." He taunted.

"Were you expecting this?" Sasori asked as he slapped Deidara himself in the back of the head in a derogatory manner. Deidara stared at Sasori in surprise and anger. "Stop acting like an idiot. If the villagers see you harassing a girl, they will get angry. And we are trying to go unnoticed, remember?"

"Not me!" Sakura piped, smiling sweetly at Sasori as he turned to glare at her. "I want to be noticed! It'll help if the villagers kept you distracted while I made my escape!"

Deidara laughed. "I can still blow you up."

"But then there's that. Damn you Akatsuki." Sakura glowered at him, crossing her arms. "And keep your hands away from my ass!" Sakura made an 'I'm watching you' movement with her fingers.

"Both of you just keep your heads down." Sasori ordered, wondering whiy he was always surrounded by immature shinobi that had no idea how to control their emotions. What were they teaching in the Academy these days?

"We will stay at the inn at the end of town, then head out in the morning." Sasori led the way into the village. "Don't you dare make any trouble!"

Sasori glared them both in the eye. Like children, Deidara and Sakura glanced at each other angrily, then huffed as they looked away.

Sasori was deep in thought as they walked down the main street of the village. He didn't understand what was happening to him. First that girl turned him human, and now he was getting these strange… feelings. Like when Deidara had offered to bathe with the girl, Sasori had felt… anger. And when Deidara had pinched her, and her body had come against his, and their eyes had locked. There were fucking sparks flying. What was next, a fairy godmother? Kami it was all cliché!

Sasori clenched his fists. Not to mention that Deidara was really grating on his nerves. Was that how guys reacted around women who looked like her? This is why he preferred to concentrate on being a ninja. That way he never made a fool of himself. Then again, Deidara was just naturally a fool.

Every time that blonde buffoon touched that girl, Sasori got irritated. His vision was tinted red and there was a churning in his stomach. But then Sasori looked at it from a different angle. Could it be that what frustrated him was that Deidara's antics were getting the girl's attentions? Is that what made him angry? The annoying human conscience that was beginning to grow in his mind snickered as it answered his question.

_'It's called Jealousy, Sasori.' And then it laughed at him._

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

Sakura was preoccupied through the entire walk through the village watching Deidara's hands. If he touched her one more time, she didn't care how much chakra she was still lacking, she would drop kick him all the way back to the forest. It was strange seeing his serious side though. Once in the village Deidara and Sasori were busy watching the rooftops and checking the shadows.

Only an idiot would try to rob an Akatsuki member, she thought. She had seen what these men could do. They would torture a man until he was begging to die. Sakura's thoughts made her pause.

_'Don't pretend you are such a good person.' Inner Sakura suddenly interrupted. 'Don't forget your own sins. You have made men beg for death as well.'_

Sakura wondered what any of her friends back at the village would think of her if they knew the things Tsunade had had her commit. She mentally shook herself. It was no use going into details right now; she had other matters to worry about.

'What would Naruto do if he knew how dangerous the missions I have been on were?' she thought.

_'He won't.' Inner Sakura said. 'Those are classified missions. Besides, he knows that in this world of ours these things are necessary.'_

'So they say.' Sakura thought.

"Hey, move." Sasori said, putting his hand on her shoulder and steering her through the crowded marketplace. She jerked from his touch.

Sakura entertained the thought that she could slip away from these men in such a crowd. She knew better though. Sasori and Deidara were no ordinary ninjas, they were the most feared rogue ninjas anywhere. They would find her before she could even get out of the marketplace.

"I know what you're thinking, and don't even bother." Sasori leaned down to whisper in her ear.

Sakura snorted. "And I know you're both too skilled for me to escape. In this situation, anyway. But not for long."

She flashed him a dangerous smile.

Sasori stared at her unimpressed for a moment, then looked up. "This is the place."

They had come to an inn near the edge of the village. Sakura looked beyond the village limits, her curiosity sparking at the sight of another town and it's Keep* on the horizon. It was close, and seemed familiar. She frowned.

"Why do you frown, my pretty?" Deidara teased, still staying out of her reach.

"Never mind." Sakura muttered shrugging off Sasori's hand.

Sasori walked up to the counter and order one large room. The innkeeper stared suspiciously at Sakura, then at the two men.

"The girl gets her own room. I don't care what ye ordered, I'll give ya two smaller rooms that will be the same price as one large room, but the lass gets her own room. We don't want no trouble here." The innkeeper glared stubbornly at Sasori, who was holding the money pouch.

Sasori kept his face blank, but Sakura could see the way his fingers had clenched. She tried not to smile, thanking the gods for small miracles. Sasori swept past her, and Deidara began to guide her to their rooms upstairs. Sakura glanced back and saw the innkeeper watching her. She gave him a sad but grateful smile, and saw his eyes narrow in response.

Turning back to follow Deidara through the narrow halls, she allowed herself a small smile. She had planted seeds of doubt in the innkeeper's mind. He was clearly a smart man. Just by seeing her grateful smile, Sakura knew the man would be getting extremely suspicious. Maybe she could escape sooner than she thought.

At the end of the hall Deidara and Sakura met Sasori. He stood there with his Akatsuki cloak falling over his shoulders proudly. Sakura hated the sight of that cloak.

"Well, girl." He said.

She looked back at him suspiciously. Perhaps she had said her thanks too soon. Doubt crept into her mind.

"Choose one of us to sleep with." Sasori said.

That threw Sakura. She gaped at him as Deidara burst out laughing beside her. "W-What?!"

Deidara managed to stop himself from laughing long enough to explain. "He means that we aren't letting you spend the night alone so that you may try to escape. One of us will be guarding you throughout the night."

Sakura put a hand to her chest to help herself calm down. Oh yeah, she had definitely panicked for a second. She glared at Sasori, but he had kept a straight face throughout the entire thing.

"I wasn't aware I had said something bad." He stated.

Both Deidara and Sakura rolled their eyes. "Baka." They both muttered.

'_He could give Sai a run for his money, neh?' Inner Sakura shook her head with a couple chuckles._

"Just choose." Sasori said.

Deidara grinned mischievously at Sakura. "Sasori!" she said quickly, moving away from Deidara's twitching hands.

"Aw, come on. It'll be fun!" he tried to persuade her as she opened the door.

Sakura softened her eyes. "Fine."

Deidara looked at her in surprise. "Really?"

"NO." she said firmly, and slammed it in his face.

Outside in the hallway Sasori knocked on the door. "Hey, I'm supposed to be in there with you."

"Not until I've finished bathing!" Sakura called and locked the door, knowing well that they could just demolish the door if they wanted to. She still had some dignity.

Apparently they were going to let her bath in peace. She waited until she heard Sasori and Deidara walk down the hall to go to the tavern attached to the inn for some dinner. After they did, a servant girl had come by to pick up Sakura's dirty clothes to wash them. Sasori and Deidara were paying after all, why not just run up the bill just to spite them? So Sakura also ordered the house special so she could eat privately.

Sakura sighed as she slid into the hot water, smiling as the smell of the oils she had added to the water tickled her nose. Quickly she ducked her head under, coming back up with a gasp and swiping her wet her back. She reached gratefully for the shampoo and began to wash her hair. The shampoo and conditioner smelled wonderful, slightly more flowery than what she usually used. But after being held captive for two days now, she wasn't complaining.

While she was soaking, the servant girl knocked on the door again with the food. Sakura quickly dried herself with one of the towels and pulled on the robe that had been provided. Sasori had chosen a very good inn.

Sakura took the tray from the girl, thanking her as she closed the door. Then Sakura went back to the bath to soak as she ate. She wasn't even this spoiled back at home. The irony of the situation did not escape notice. When her skin started to get all wrinkly on her fingers, Sakura sighed and got out of the bath tub, wrapping herself in the towel.

Tucking the towel around her body, Sakura started to comb through her hair with her fingers. She shook her hair to get rid of some of the water on it, then combed through it again. A snicker escaped her as Sakura thought of how much this would cost Sasori, and the Akatsuki itself.

An idea hit her, and Sakura pulled on a robe to sneak across the hall and into Deidara's room. Finding a sheet of paper and ink, she wrote a quick report to Lady Tsunade, then returned the ink to where she had found it. Carefully, Sakura snuck out of Deidara's room and waited for the serving girl to return.

Pulling the worn robe around her, Sakura waited by the door, peeking down the hall. Much to her luck, Sakura spotted the servant girl down the hall. She waved the girl over and returned the tray and plates to the girl, telling her that the food was delicious and many compliments to the chef and staff. Then Sakura handed her message to Lady Tsunade and gave the girl directions on how to properly send it to Konoha.

"I will get this delivered right away!" the girl smiled and went back to work.

Sakura smiled. She walked back to the tub and emptied the water, then hid the used oils. Sasori knew she would take a bath, but he didn't have to know she had used the bath oils. They were very expensive, and Sakura had the feeling he wouldn't be too happy if he found out he would be paying for them.

"Have a nice bath?" Sasori asked as he opened the door, shutting it in Deidara's face before Deidara could get his head through.

"Very pleasant." Sakura said politely, standing by the window with her arms crossed, regretting how thin the cloth of the robe was. She kept her face clear of emotions as she stared out of the window.

"The innkeeper stopped me. Said that he didn't want trouble, and whatever." Sasori approached Sakura with a suspicious look. "Now why would he do that?"

Sakura sighed and turned to him. "Look at you two. Your appearance and the way you act practically scream 'I am a criminal!'."

"He mentioned seeing how 'distressed the young lass seemed to be'." Sasori took another step closer.

"Well I have been taken captive by two members of the Akatsuki, who are a notorious criminal group of probably the most powerful rogue ninjas from all the ninja villages." Sakura said calmly at him. "I might be a little _distressed_."

"You can hide your emotions very well if you wanted to. It is what you are doing now." Sasori closed the space between them and loomed over Sakura. She wanted so badly to back away, but stood her ground. "Don't make trouble here, Sakura. I don't think you want the nice folk here to pay for your attempts to escape."

Sakura felt a pang of guilt as she thought of the sweet serving girl and glared at Sasori. "You are a monster." She seethed leaning towards him, then pushing him out of the way to approach the bed. Or rather, the mat that served as a bed.

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

Sasori had a nice view of cleavage as he looked down at the girl. He didn't even have to pay attention to the human part of his mind to know that the sight pleased him. Not that he would ever admit it openly.

She leaned forward up to his face. "You are a monster."

Then she had pushed him aside and walked towards the mat. Sasori's mouth twitched into a sardonic smile. "I used to be a monster, girl. You made me human again. Which, by the way, would you mind explaining to me now?"

"No." was her immediate answer. "And my name is Sakura."

Sakura. It was fitting. Pink hair, green eyes. Not to mention she smelled strongly of flowers right now, the scent filling his head. She was Sakura.

"Sakura." He said, tasting the name on his lips. "The precious flower of Konoha, teammate of the infamous 'last' Uchiha and the Kyuubi container, student of the Copy-nin and apprentice to the great Godaime Hokage, Tsunade herself. I've done my homework, girl."

"_Huh?_" she stopped fluffing the sad excuse for a pillow and glared at him. "I am Haruno Sakura. Kunoichi of Konoha. Who my teammates are does not make me who _I_ am."

Sasori sat down next to the mat as she lay down and pulled the blankets up. He tried to keep his eyes from wandering over her body. He was disappointed to see the blankets cover her legs, but the robe was showing off a nice bit of collarbone.

_'Hard being a human again, isn't it?' his human conscious asked sarcastically._

"Just saying," he replied. "Your name fits you. I have no doubt you will surpass the Lady Tsunade, one day. And you will be as legendary as your teammates."

A homesick look crossed her face, but she quickly covered it up. She leaned away from him to blow out the lantern. He heard her shuffled to get under the blankets, then all was quiet.

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

During the night there was a tentative knock on the door. Sakura woke, keeping her body still. She let her eyes adjust to the darkness, then turned to find Sasori had fallen asleep next to her. Their bodies were unerringly close, facing each other with their forearms touching. Sakura slowly rolled away form him, then got up.

She crept to the door and cracked it open, the lantern the person outside was holding letting in a soft light. "Who is it?" she whispered.

"The innkeeper." The man said quickly. "I don't trust the men you are with. There is an extra horse I keep in the stables. You will find provisions packed in the kitchen on your way to the stables. Don't worry about the horse, I'll charge the men for it."

Sakura stared at the kind face of the rough man. She lowered her eyes. "I'm sorry. I can't."

"What? Why?" the man asked worriedly, his whisper getting dangerously loud.

"Shh!" she put a finger to her lips. "Look, I appreciate it. But- These men are not to be toyed with." She glanced back at Sasori. "If they find me gone they will kill everyone here."

The Innkeeper looked horrified.

"Please- Just don't bother." She whispered. "But thank you. It… It means a lot to me."

The Innkeeper looked at her with pity. "May the gods watch over you, lass. My lady and I will pray for your safety."

Will a look of guilt and anger, the Innkeeper turned and strode silently back down the hall. Sakura could see that he knew that he was no match for men like Sasori or Deidara. Her life was not worth the lives of the entire household.

She padded quietly back to the mat and lay down, feeling torn inside. So close to freedom. But she would not let Sasori and Deidara kill these people. Sakura hoped and prayed that she would find a way to contact Konoha again soon.

"I can't believe you just did that." Sasori's voice cut through the darkness.

Sakura jolted and Sasori's hand covered her mouth to smother her yelp. She glared at him in the darkness, and bit his hand half-heartedly. He chuckled as he removed it.

"So loud." He muttered. "I'd forgotten that human bodies needed to sleep…"

"Are you trying to scare me to death?" she hissed.

She felt him shrug. "If I were you, I would have taken the chance to escape and never looked back."

"But I am not as cruel as you." She hissed, turning her back to him. "Now shut up and let me rest."

"Ha. Goodnight then." He muttered.

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

When Sakura awoke, she was very disoriented. She assessed her position, confused. There was something warm pressing against her. And she was looking at something black. Then she realized it was a black shirt over a man's chest. She looked up to see Sasori looking down at her with an amused light in his eyes, keeping his mouth from smiling.

"Don't scream." He said quickly.

She screamed through clenched teeth to muffle the sound. Sakura tried to push him away angrily, but realized her arms were pinned at his sides, wrapped around Sasori's torso.

"Let me go!"

"Ah, but you were the one who put your arms here in the first place. I'm just trying to keep you from spontaneously punching me through the wall." Sasori said with mock innocence.

"You- you bastard!" she spat in his face, tugging on her arms. But Sasori hadn't lost any of his strength when she had turned him human again. And his muscles were rock hard.

He smiled too sweetly. "I think I rather like this position."

"Do you want me to crush your manhood?" she asked him dangerously.

Sasori sighed. "Promise you won't spontaneously punch me through a wall?"

"Promise." She gritted out.

He loosened his hold on her and she ripped her arms away from him. She scrambled out from under the blankets, glaring at him. He didn't laugh, but she could see the amusement in his eyes.

"Kami, any man of yours would have to wear a cup to bed." He nonchalantly. "Oh, and you might want to re-adjust your robe."

Sakura gasped and looked down, her face turning ten shades redder than it had already been. She quickly righted her robe over her body, cursing as she did.

"Such a foul mouth." Sasori shook his head.

"Shut your trap." She snapped.

There was a knock on the door, and Sakura opened it to find the servant girl with her clothes, cleaned and dry. "Thank you." Sakura said curtly, taking the clothes and shutting the door. She whipped around to find Sasori watching her with an amused expression. Oh he was so dead now.

"Turn around and face that wall." She snapped and walked into the bathroom to get dressed. He shrugged but complied. Sakura slipped on her underwear without removing the robe, then put her bra on with lightning speed. She put her pants on next, then was about to pull on her shirt when Sasori spoke.

"Hn. I like the bra."

She pulled on her shirt and turned to glare at him. He was supposed to be facing a wall. "When we get out of the village, I am going to punch you all the way back to Konoha."

"Are you always this hostile to the men you sleep with?"

Sakura bristled at how he had worded that. "No. Only with the ones who sleep with me without my permission."

"So you have slept with other men." A strange look crossed Sasori's face, but Sakura was too pissed to figure what it meant.

"I'm not going to comment." She snapped.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" he asked as if he didn't hear her. "Do I have to kill him?"

"Ha ha you're hilarious." She said sarcastically.

"So you have slept with people but you don't have a boyfriend." He stated.

Sakura turned to glare at him. "I am not a whore. My life is too busy for a boyfriend."

"Yet you have slept with other men."

Sakura turned to Sasori and raised an eyebrow at him. "Yes. I have."

She crossed her arms and waited for him to figure it out. Thankfully, it didn't take long. Realization dawned on his face in an unusual show of emotion other than smirking, scowling, and his whole calm façade. Now it was her turn to smirk.

"Seduction." He blinked.

Sakura was enjoying the sight of a speechless Akatsuki member. "Yes." She answered. "As a part of missions, I have slept with men."

He shook his head. "I never underestimate women. And kunoichis like you are the reason why. Those poor sods probably had it coming though."

Sakura shrugged, taking it as a compliment.

"So are you any good?" Sasori asked with an innocently impassive look on his face.

Sakura slapped him.

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

"What happened to you?" Deidara asked him when they met outside the inn. By the look on Deidara's face, he was already figuring it out.

"Sasori decided to be a bastard all morning." Sakura answered off-handedly.

Deidara glanced at the red handprint on Sasori's face and grinned. "So I see."

Sasori glared at him, pocketing his money pouch. "Sakura, would you have any idea how our bill was two times higher than it should be?"

She smiled sweetly at him. "No idea."

Deidara barked with laughter.

"Then I guess it comes out of Deidara's pay check then." Sasori shrugged and began to walk out of the village.

"Wait- what?" Deidara choked.

Sakura covered her smile with a hand as Deidara chased after Sasori. Her hands were tied once they were far enough from the village, and the ropes were placed back on the ankles. Deidara tied her ankles carefully, alert for any signs that she was about to knee him. The bruise on his face that Sakura had given him was turning a lovely shade of purple.

Sakura smirked. Her captors were taking a worst beating than she was. They began to walk down the rode, Sakura wishing for a horse or something. The temperature would have been nice if she weren't trekking for hours under the constant sun. At least she wasn't wearing those stifling black Akatsuki robes. Sucked for them.

"One last stop for civilization." Deidara sighed. "And then another week in the woods. And after that there'll be no chance for escape." Deidara winked at Sakura.

"Huh?!" Sakura stopped. Oh no. She had to stall long enough for Naruto to find her. Only a week until her chances for escape were gone?!

Sasori sighed and turned to look back at Sakura. "Come on."

"No." she said stubbornly. "Not until you explain."

"I'll let you deal with this, Sasori." He muttered, walking off.

Sasori sighed. "Explain what?"

"After this town we are going to be approaching, how far to the base?" she asked.

"A week. And then once the doors are closed behind you, you won't be able to escape." Sasori watched Sakura's face turn from shock to anger.

"No." she shook her head and taking a step back. Just as she did Sasori appeared behind her and she bumped up against him. His arms wrapped around her to prevent her from lashing out.

"You aren't going anywhere, kunoichi." He said. "Now, are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

Sakura struggled, but he held her fast. Damn! Her chakra levels were still weak! Sakura began to struggle some more as her mind began to notice his earthy smell, and the warmth of his skin… Oh come one! Now was not the time for her hormones to kick in! "Let me go!"

"Not until I know you aren't going to try and run off." He said, his mouth close to her ear. Was he doing that intentionally? "Not that you'd get far; with your legs tied and your chakra levels so low."

"You…" she growled. Sasori's hands gripped her shoulders and turned her to face him. She tried not to catch her breath, the light playing perfectly across his face. Her heart thumped. That was a bad sign.

"Now, please make this easy for me, and come calmly…" his voice trailed off as his eyes focused on hers.

They both went still, staring at each other. Sakura was acutely aware of how close his body was, and the way his hands rested on her shoulders. Her fingers twitched to tousle his hair.

"This is very bad…" Sasori murmured. He broke contact and shook his head. "Come on. Let's go."

"Yeah." She said absently, following Sasori. Her thoughts were preoccupied with that strange moment, horrified at the thoughts that had entered her mind. In a few minutes she and Sasori reached Deidara, who was dozing off under a tree.

They stopped at noon to eat some of the food from the village market, eating in silence. Sakura was thankful that the food would stay fresh for at least another day. When they got back up to keep walking, she allowed her mind to wander as she stared at the clouds.

That night they reached the outskirts of the town she had seen on the horizon from the previous village. The men took off the ropes when they were in sight, and approached the town gate. Sakura got another sense of déjà vu as she read the name of the town.

Nako... The name seemed familiar to her, yet still she couldn't remember. Sasori and Deidara led her through the gate and turned to go to the less welcoming part of town. Sakura stuck close to her scary companions, hoping that the sight of them would discourage the more distasteful denizens of the streets.

Unfortunately there were many fools out tonight, and Sakura had had four pats on the butt before she finally snapped as a man captured her wrist and tried to press himself to her. Pats on the butt were annoying, but nothing new. This guy had grabbed her. She was about to yell at him, her anger boiling, when someone moved faster than her. Sasori had the man by the neck, standing in the middle of the dark street strangling the man.

"Allow me!" Sakura growled. Sasori turned to look at her, then dropped the man on the ground for Sakura to deal with.

"You want this?" she asked the man, hauling him up by his collar. "Well I have had enough of all you leering hyenas thinking that every pretty women is a whore you can just pull into your lap! Butt pats? I had plenty of 'em. But when you go grabbing me, I will make you regret it!"

With that Sakura drop kicked the man over the nearest building, hearing a satisfying crash some blocks away. Deidara and Sasori were staring at her when she turned around, anger still prominent in her eyes. Her hands were still clenched.

"Nice one." Sasori said.

"Now I'm definitely going to stay out of your reach while your limbs are untied." Deidara declared, though his eyes were sparked with interest as if she were a box to be opened.

"Wait, so how many men have been touching you?" Sasori asked as his mind registered what she had said.

"He was the fifth." Sakura said stiffly, still angry.

Deidara and Sasori shared a look. "Alright." Sasori said, "You will walk behind me with Deidara behind you for now. If any more men try to touch you, we will stop them."

"And kill them." Deidara said eagerly.

"Please, don't let me stop you." Sakura muttered.

A while later, night had fully settled over the town. They reached the inn Sasori had been leading them to, a small but clean inn at the end of the town. They checked in without trouble and went to their rooms, one for Sakura and one for the two Akatsuki members.

"You're letting me sleep without a guard?" she asked them in surprise.

"There's a door adjoining our two rooms, so you won't be completely free to escape." Sasori pointed out. "Don't make me regret giving you such a luxury, or I will force you to sleep tied up in the stables- no matter what the innkeeper might say."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at the insult but said nothing. She was truly thankful for the privacy, even if it wasn't as absolute as she would have liked it to be. With a muttered 'thank you' she slipped into her room. Inside was a simple mat, then a chair and table set on the other side of the small room. Sakura slipped off her shoes and stood in the room for a moment, thinking.

There was a door on the wall that she shared with Sasori and Deidara's room. She could hear their movements from the crack between the door and the floor, but they didn't speak in their room. Sakura sighed. She still needed to find a way to contact Konoha. But now she at least knew where she was.

Nako had been a town where she had done a secret mission for Tsunade. It was east of Konoha's position, so she had been right about the direction. But Nako was far from Konoha, and Sakura doubted she'd be able to escape without at least a week's head start on Sasori and Deidara. So she was effectively trapped.

Sakura growled in frustration and turned around to exit her room. She had seen the inn advertising a public bathhouse attached to the property. Entering the side reserved for women, Sakura walked into the locker room. She stripped off her sweaty clothes and washed them in a wash tub for clothes, hanging them to dry in the driest part of the bath house.

With that done, Sakura wrapped herself in a towel and headed to the pool. Sighing, Sakura sat in the warm water that came up to her chest. Light steam rose from its surface, with plain white tiles at the bottom of the large pool. Sakura didn't stay long, and regretfully got out of the pool when she had finished washing, throwing her towel into a basket for the used towels.

Her clothes were still damp when she put them back on, but she didn't complain. When she walked out of the bathhouse, Sakura saw with surprise that Sasori and Deidara were approaching her. Still not knowing how she was supposed to react to her captors, Sakura kept a blank face as they greeted her.

"Sakura." Sasori nodded. It was strange hearing him say her name.

"We were just about to take a bath." Deidara chirped. "Care to join us?" he asked suggestively.

Sakura ignored him. "I'm going to grab a bite. This is still all on Deidara's tab I take it?"

"Indeed." Sasori said solemnly, but his mouth twitched as Deidara began to throw a fit.

"Why do you have to spend _my_ money?" he complained. "Sasori has more money than I do!"

"Because you are the one annoying me." Sakura snapped, then walked past them back to the inn for her dinner.

The men entered the men's part of the bathhouse and stripped and cleaned their clothes before picking up a towel and entering the men's bath. Sasori couldn't help but stare at the flesh and blood as he finally took off all his clothes for the first time since that Sakura girl had changed him.

He flexed his hands as he sat in the warm water. And now he could feel the warmth of the water, feel it trickle down his muscles, and plaster his red hair to his face and neck. He could feel the moisture in the air, muffling the sound of Deidara's movements as the blonde man settled into the bath across from him.

"Well what do ya know?" Deidara said cheerily. "The puppet, or ex-puppet, really does have a dick."

"Deidara, if you don't shut up right now I will throw you out of this bathhouse butt-naked and burn your clothes." Sasori threatened, meaning every word. Deidara's mouth snapped shut. Still, Sasori pulled his towel tighter around his waist in the water.

Deidara leaned back and relaxed in the pool as Sasori reached for the soap. When Sasori was finished with the soap he handed it silently to Deidara, and then got up to check to see if their clothes were dry yet. After Deidara finished washing he joined Sasori and together they got dressed.

"Just saying." Deidara said as they were still dressing. "This is the first time I've really seen you in that new human body of yours, Sasori. It's really strange to see you like that."

Sasori grunted. He thought back to how many of his puppets had been destroyed in his fight against Sakura. It was a shame, now he had to make a lot more to replaced those that had been crushed. Perhaps he could turn that girl into a puppet. He wasn't sure how he'd be able to retain her medical jutsus, but her other skills would made her a powerful puppet.

_'Are you sure that's what you want to do with her?' that annoying voice in the back of his mind nagged. 'Make her cold and lifeless? She will never look at you with that fierce light in her eyes, the warmth of her skin… **She** is the most real person in your life. Will you destroy the one who made you feel again?'_

'Yes!' Sasori thought angrily. 'It's because of her that I am no longer perfect! I have lost control of my emotions! And I don't remember how to be human anymore!' But there was doubt in his claim.

_'Don't go destroy that which is beautiful just to spite yourself.' The voice advised. 'Just admit that you are scared. Then maybe you will find what you are looking for.'_

'I am not scared.' Sasori looked back down at the muscles of his chest, rippling just as they had when he was a young man, before he had turned himself into a puppet. He glanced back at the flesh of his hands. 'I'm just confused…'

Sakura looked up as the men walked into the eating room of the inn. She took another bite of her noodles, but kept her eyes on the Akatsuki members. It was amazing how people didn't notice the creepy men with the strange cloaks.

They sat across from her and ordered some food for themselves. Sakura stayed quiet, finishing her meal. They were both slightly pink still from the warmth of the bathhouse, and their hair was plastered to their necks.

"Enjoy your meal, Sakura?" Sasori asked uninterestedly, staring around the room.

"I would answer that if you were actually paying attention to me." Sakura replied as a serving girl brought the men's meals to them.

Sasori narrowed his eyes at Sakura for a moment before he and Deidara turned their attention to the food. Deidara was quiet throughout the meal, concentrating on the food, inhaling it in a way that rivaled Naruto and his ramen. Sakura averted her eyes form the barbaric act.

Thankfully, Sasori ate with much more grace. Sakura wasn't sure if she could stand to eat at a table with two pigs. She thought back to one of her missions as a young girl with the original Team 7, where Kakashi had taken them all to eat ramen. Everyone had been starving, but Sakura was horrified to see both Sasuke and Naruto eat like cave men.

A smile touched her lips. But she quickly wiped it away when she caught Sasori watching her. Sakura cleared her throat.

"So, am I allowed to know where we are headed?"

"No." both Deidara and Sasori answered between bites.

Sakura crossed her arms and sighed, exasperated.

"Would you tell me how you turned me human again?" Sasori asked calmly.

"No." she answered.

He shrugged. "You will tell me soon enough once we reach the base."

"I'm so excited." She muttered.

The men had just finished eating and were escorting Sakura out of the room when she bumped into a man who had been entering the room.

"Oh, excuse me miss." A young man apologized.

Sakura stared. It was a young man she had used to infiltrate the Keep of this town. What was his name? Oh yeah. Uterro. She had posed as Yuki, a young 'companion' for the rich noble men in the Keep. Uterro had been the man she had been assigned to keep 'company'.

"By the gods!" the young man exclaimed as Sakura resisted Sasori's efforts to push her out the door and away from this man. "Yuki! I haven't seen you for… a year now? How are you?"

An idea clicked in her head. Sakura widened her eyes until she looked like a frightened rabbit, and hunched down to make herself to seem small. Allowing her hands to tremble, she waved cowardly at the young man.

"Yuki?" the man asked worriedly, seeing poor girl tremble slightly.

"U-Uterro-san." She greeted nervously, glancing at Deidara and Sasori. They narrowed their eyes at her façade.

"Are you in trouble or something, lovely?" he asked, regarding her companions suspiciously. His bodyguards immediately assessed Sasori and Deidara, many finally realizing the danger the two Akatsuki members posed. "Are these men hurting you?"

"N-n-no." she gave a false laugh that came out a little too high pitched. "N-nothing is wrong. Perfectly f-fine!" Sakura gave another laugh, this one a little hysterical sounding.

She could see in Uterro's eyes that he wasn't fooled. "Yuki, don't try to protect me. Tell me truthfully, are these men hurting you?"

Just then, Sasori reached for Sakura's elbow. "What are you doing?" he hissed.

'Escaping you.' She thought. 'If only long enough to get a message to Tsunade.' Still pretending to be the helpless girl 'Yuki', Sakura flinched at Sasori's touch, and whimpered in a way that always made men want to jump to her rescue. Uterro's bodyguards now clutched their weapons tightly, thinking that her whimpers were a sign that Sasori had hurt Sakura.

"You don't even have to answer." Uterro growled. "I can tell just from your behavior that these men have hurt you. Guards! Seize them!"

Deidara yelled at Sakura and Sasori just glared as the bodyguards converged on them, but they didn't fight back. Sakura felt Uterro pull her away from the fighting, and take her outside. Her plan had worked!

"Yuki, what were those men doing with you?" he asked her gently.

Sakura allowed herself to tremble as if she had been frightened of the fighting. "They- they were bad men. They took me and- and they hurt me- and," she sniffed. "They would force themselves on me…"

It was an exaggeration of the truth, she thought. Sakura felt Uterro stiffen, and turned to find his staring at the bruises on her arms. She had gotten them in her battle with Sasori, but he didn't know that.

"Did they give you these?" Uterro asked Sakura.

She nodded. Technically, they did, anyway.

"Come, let's go back to the Keep." He said, steering her towards the small castle that ruled over the town. A few of his bodyguards had rejoined them, the rest Sakura guessed were dragging Sasori and Deidara to the prison. She wondered how long she had until they broke free and recaptured her.

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

Once they got to the Keep*, Uterro brought her to his quarters in the Keep. Sakura never faltered in her act. She was Yuki now. 'The high-end whore.' She thought sarcastically.

"So please tell me your story, Yuki. How did those terrible men come into possessing you?" he knelt next to her gently.

_'Ah, the gullibility of the chivalrous. Thank Kami men always underestimate women.' Inner Sakura chanted._

"A friend of mine and I…" Sakura's mind quickly pieced together a story. "We were trying to make a life in one of the bigger cities. But the people there were so much… well, they weren't as nice."

She laughed nervously. Uterros nodded in a understanding way. Always so sensitive. It was a shame he was nothing but a means to get her way.

"My boss there wasn't like Mistress Noll." Mistress Noll was the lady in charge of hiring all the right whores for the noble men to play with. But she really was an understanding lady. She knew that the job was better than other things for many of her charges.

"My boss there…" Sakura sighed. "Mistress Noll always looked out for us. She always made sure that customers never hurt her women. But- but no one cared there."

Sakura pretended to hiccup. "And those men- they just took me!"

"Shh, Yuki, you're safe now." Uterro soothed what he thought was a hysterical young girl who was traumatized. "Come here."

Uterro pulled 'Yuki' into his lap and wrapped her in his arms. Sakura mentally rolled her eyes. But her cover meant that she pretend to enjoy his affections. She laid her head on his shoulders, adding a couple more hiccups to her act.

"But of course no one cares. No one cares about a _whore_." She spat the last word. "People don't realize that women like me need this job. It's the only thing that pays well enough to keep us alive. But I'm nothing but a _whore_."

"Shh don't call yourself that word Yuki." Uterro comforted her as she began to cry some more.

"Uterro?" She said quietly.

"Yeah?"

"If you don't mind… I just want to lie down. I haven't had decent sleep for days."

Uterro nodded. "I can understand. I must have been terrible for you to be stuck with those men."

Sakura nodded helplessly as Uterro laid her down on a couch. "I still have a lot of business to do, I'm afraid. You know us nobles, we are all workaholics. I'll be back later though."

"Thank you." Sakura said weakly.

"You are safe now, Yuki." Uterro smiled as he walked out of the room.

* * *

><p><strong>Sakura is so cunning! Using one of her old aliases to escape the Akatsuki! How will Sasori and Deidara react? Is she home free?<strong>

**Psh no. Then that'd be the end of the story. Warning, LEMONS in the next chapter!**

***Update: A Keep, in this story, is another term used for a castle or fortress that resides over a city.**


	3. Chapter 3

**DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN NARUTO**

**Chapter three! I'll be poppin these chapters out really fast today, they've all been waiting on my computer. Reviews, suggestions, and even requests are all welcome!**

**Update: ****Okay, so I've re-posted this. In the last chapter Sakura was 'rescued' by an old… acquaintance. Unfortunately what happened next seems to have disappeared in the files, so I've had to re-type it (gaaaaaaah!). THANK YOU TO THE REVIEWS! They helped me catch this **_**large**_** mistake. I'm sooo sorry for those who were confused. Ugh… like an entire portion of this chapter seems to have poofed. Gaaaah… Technology hates me.**

**I HAVE CHANGED SOME THINGS IN THE STORY. (Mainly in chapters 2 and 3)**

* * *

><p><em><span>Chapter Three: Within the Akatsuki<span>_

She waited until she heard his footsteps fade and then jumped off the couch. Sakura searched Uterro's room until she found some ink and paper. Smiling triumphantly, she wrote her letter to Lady Tsunade.

In the letter she told Tsunade that the Akatsuki seemed to be taking her east, and that they were currently in the village Nako. From Nako, it would take about a week to two weeks for them to reach the Akatsuki base. Sakura added that it was important that she be rescued before the Akatsuki reached their base. After she was taken to the base, it would be impossible to find and rescue her.

"_And please hurry!"_ Sakura added at the end of her letter.

Then Sakura stood and snuck out of Uterro's room. The Keep was just as busy as she remembered it from when she had been undercover there. From her memories of the place, Sakura easily located one of the falconers and bribed him with money she had swiped from Uterro to allow her to send a message to Konoha. After that Sakura ran back to the room before Uterro discovered that she had left.

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

"THAT CONNIVING BITCH! I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE DID THAT TO US!" Deidara fumed as he paced back and forth in their cell.

Sasori followed his partner's movements while the blonde let out some steam. "Are you done yet?" he asked Deidara.

Deidara stopped and sighed. "Yup, it's out of my system now."

"Good. Now let's get out of here, shall we?" Sasori said calmly, standing up from the bench.

There was a small explosion in the prison. The guards came running to check it out only to find that all the guards on that floor had been killed. There were some more yells as the guards suddenly attacked each other, unable to control their bodies. When every man had been killed, Sasori and Deidara stepped out of the shadows.

"Hey, why don't you guys release us as well?" some of the other prisoners yelled.

Deidara flipped them off. "Do it yourselves!" he laughed at them and followed Sasori as they stepped through the newly made hole in the wall, courtesy of Deidara.

Sasori and Deidara put walked to the entrance of the Keep and snuck in. Walking through the halls, they listened to the servants for any sign of Sakura's whereabouts.

"Did you hear about Uterro saving that young girl from some criminals?" The Akatsuki members stopped and listened to the maids gossip.

"Oh yes! Sounds so romantic!" the other maid replied.

"But it gets even more exciting!" the first maid whispered loudly. "The girl used to be a one of the whores here! Word is, she went to the city and was kidnapped by some customers of the place she had been working at!"

"Scandalous!" the second maid whispered. "Uterro was such a sweet man! I never would have pictured him being friends with one of the whores! I mean, I know that the noblemen here visit Mistress Noll's- um, business- a lot, but I never would have imagined Uterro doing such things!"

"Is it really so surprising?" the first maid laughed. "All noblemen sleep with whores! No matter how expensive the girl is, a whore is a whore."

"Excuse me." Sasori interrupted smoothly. The maids hiccupped in surprise and covered their mouths, probably hoping that the man in front of them hadn't heard their gossip. "Would you mind telling me where nobleman Uterro's rooms are?"

"We… well we aren't supposed to give that kind of information out to strangers…" the first maid replied.

"I'm also sure that the maids aren't supposed to be gossiping instead of doing their jobs, but what do I know?" Deidara smirked. The women's faces colored in outraged shame.

"Fine!" the woman hissed. "It's on the third floor, left wing. Now get away from us!"

"Thank you." Sasori said politely.

Deidara and Sasori followed the woman's directions and went to the third floor. When they opened the door of the left wing, they found Sakura lying on a chaise lounge, reading one of Uterro's books. She looked up unsurprised when they walked in.

"I thought you'd be here sooner." She said calmly.

"What?" Deidara asked surprised.

Sakura put the book down on the end table. "I'm not dumb enough to think that stunt back at the inn would keep you two busy enough for me to really escape. But I was expecting you two to escape the prison and find your way here sooner."

Sasori and Deidara stared at her.

"Then what was the purpose of you escaping?" Sasori asked calmly, although his eyes showed his growing frustration at Sakura.

"I had my reasons…" Sakura smirked, but kept refused to say more. "Now, are we ready to go?"

Deidara and Sasori escorted Sakura out of the Keep. Sasori put his cloak around Sakura to try and disguise her from the guards and anyone else who had seen Sakura enter the Keep. They had just left the Keep's boundaries when an alarm sounded and all the gates of the Keep were closed.

"They must have realize we've taken our prisoner back." Deidara said, glancing at Sakura, then the Keep.

"We need to keep moving before they start combing the village." Sasori said.

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

Naruto had healed quickly and joined the search for Sakura. Two days after he and Kakashi had returned to Konoha, a message arrived from some small village in the east. Sakura had managed to sneak a message to Lady Tsunade!

The message told them that the Akatsuki were still taking Sakura east, and that Sakura herself was okay. That was all the small note said, but at least it was something. Tsunade quickly ordered the search to commence in that area, but it would take two days or so just for the search parties to arrive in the area, and by then the Akatsuki could have taken Sakura far away.

Knowing this, Naruto had pushed hard towards their destination. Traveling with him was Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba. Ino and Hinata were busy doing something for Tsunade and Shino was going to be acting as a messenger between all the search parties and Konoha. Everyone on Naruto's team could see how the blonde boy twitched whenever they had to stop to rest.

Unfortunately, by the time Naruto arrived, all traces of Sakura were gone.

But Naruto and the other search parties kept searching for Sakura. A day later Hinata and Ino arrived in the village with good news. Sakura had sent another message from the next town, Nako. Everyone immediately headed off to Nako.

"Ironic huh?" Ino asked Hinata as they were searching Nako. Shikamaru signaled Naruto and the two men listened in on the girls' conversation.

Ino and Hinata were standing on the roof of one of the stores. Shikamaru and Naruto jumped onto the roof behind them, quietly, hiding behind the chimney. Neji had been searching the town with Shikamaru and Naruto, so followed them on to the rooftop. Shikamaru signaled Neji to be silent and listen.

"Hm?" Hinata's voice was soft. "Ironic how?"

"Remember the last time you, me, and Sakura came to this town?" Ino said with a laugh.

Shikamaru, Naruto, and Neji saw Hinata turn bright red. "O-Oh. Yeah, I-I do." Hinata laughed nervously. "Ironic."

"The message came from Keep castle." Ino sighed. "I see the security of those nobles hasn't gotten any better."

"So i-if Sakura got into the Keep…" Hinata mused. "That means she went as Y-Yuki."

Ino nodded. "Taking out old aliases. Smart girl."

"S-Should we interview U-Uterro?" Hinata asked.

"No." Ino shook her head. "We can't let Uterro or any other nobles recognize us as Leaf ninjas."

"And if we have any of the others speak to Uterro, they'll be wondering how we knew to ask him for information." Hinata finished Ino's thoughts. "W-Well, then that's n-not an option."

"This sucks." Ino sighed. "We can't interview the one person who has actually talked to Sakura because we can't risk being recognized!"

Ino and Hinata sighed and jumped off the rooftops.

The boys turned to each other.

"So this was one of the places that Tsunade sent Sakura, Ino, and Hinata on one of her secret missions." Shikamaru said.

"What?" Neji looked at Shikamaru, for once genuinely confused. Naruto and Shikamaru quickly explained to Neji about Tsunade using Sakura, Ino, and Hinata on classified missions.

"One thing at a time, Shikamaru." Neji shook his head. "Besides, we go on classified missions all the time. Why do you care about what Tsunade is making Sakura, Ino, and Hinata do?"

Shikamaru shook his head. "Because something doesn't feel right. I've noticed those girls being different when they get back form these missions. Something just isn't right about this."

"Well we can't worry about that now." Neji told Shikamaru and Naruto. "Let's just focus on Sakura."

Naruto nodded, but turned to Shikamaru. "I want to know what all this is about too. But we'll look into this _after_ we find Sakura."

All the search parties met up at the end of the day in the town square. They had been questioning everyone, but other than the usual scandals of the nobles, they couldn't find anything about a girl being held prisoner by two Akatsuki members.

"The escaped prisoners could be the Akatsuki… do you think?" Shikamaru asked.

"Would the Akatsuki be caught by mere local law enforcement?" Naruto pointed out.

"You're right…" Shikamaru sighed.

"This is getting us nowhere!" Ino yelled angrily.

Hinata put her hand on Ino's shoulder. "Ino…"

"_Please hurry._" Ino whispered.

"What?" everyone asked.

Ino looked so sad. "Those were Sakura's last words in the message. _Please hurry_…"

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

The next week went by without incident and soon they were approaching the place Sakura had been fearing since her capture: the Akatsuki base. Her hands and ankles roped, she had no chance of running away. And no Leaf ninja had shown up to help her yet. This was the end.

Sakura kept her chin up and her eyes hardened. She would not let these people frighten her. Clenching her fists, she waited as Deidara and Sasori opened the passage to the base.

How would her friends find her now? Wait! Sakura quickly reached up and untied her headband, knowing that Sasori and Deidara were too busy to notice the movement. She crept over to a nearby tree and hung her headband on a branch, then headed back to where she had been left standing. Letting go of the headband felt like letting go of Konoha. Her throat closed up.

'_It is all we can do now.' Inner Sakura told her sadly. 'Naruto will find it. You know he will!'_

'No.' Sakura shook her head. 'I don't know if he will find it. But you are right. That is all we can do from here on. One last desperate move…'

Sasori and Deidara finished opening to entrance to the base, and Sakura was led into the depths of the Akatsuki, wondering if she would ever escape.

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

Sakura sat on a ledge overlooking the forest beyond the base. It had been two months and two weeks since she was brought to the base. And that didn't count the two weeks it took for Deidara and Sasori to bring her here.

When they had first brought her here, she was mostly ignored by the other members. Deidara deactivated the bomb he had made her eat back when they had first captured her. Under the conditions and reasons for her capture, the Akatsuki Leader deemed that she would be Sasori's prisoner, and it would be his job to keep her from escaping. That didn't stop her from trying.

Sakura was still, after two months, looking for ways to escape. But the Akatsuki kept a close eye on her after she had first attempted to escape. She had been so close too! After the second time she almost escaped the rest of the members seemed to recognize her as a girl to be reckoned with. Some seemed to have developed almost a respect for her.

She had to admit it wasn't as bad as she had thought it would be. The Akatsuki seemed to think of themselves as civilized people, and kept her well fed and gave her a nice room to sleep in. Well, the room was after she had been thrown into a cell for a week or two.

Every day Sasori tried to threaten and scare her, to make her tell him how she had turned him back into a human. Every day Sakura refused to tell him, even after he tried torturing her a few times. He seemed to have forgotten that romantic moment in the forest, and to tell the truth, Sakura wanted to forget it as well.

Deidara was more relaxed at the base, and wasn't afraid to crack jokes with her. Kisame was teased her in a friendly way, and he seemed to enjoy cooking with Sakura. Her meeting with Itachi had been very awkward; she had been very nervous. Sakura didn't know why, but Itachi seemed to make an effort to be her friend, and she was slowly warming up to him. She also liked Tobi, he was like a puppy who got a little annoying at times.

The others creeped her out, but Zetsu was polite, even his dark side. Hidan she mostly ignored, but sometimes his mouth would piss her off so much that she just had to punch him through a wall. The first time she had done so had sent Deidara into a fit of laughter, and the other Akatsuki members had been impressed. No one seemed too worried about Hidan. He partner just called him an idiot and went back to counting money. There were a few other members, but they were always away on business, so Sakura only ever caught glimpses of them.

'_Look at you, best friends with the Akatsuki! What will Tsunade think?' Inner Sakura teased._

'She won't ever find out.' Sakura thought sadly. 'Because I'll be stuck here.'

'_Don't give up!' Inner Sakura chided._

'That doesn't mean I'll stop trying to escape.' Sakura thought. 'But I know the odds of me escaping, and they aren't too good for me.'

Sakura sighed and left the window, heading back to her room. She could feel the fire inside her slowly going out. As each day passed the thought that Konoha would finally find her became less and less likely. That last move of hers to leave her headband on the tree seemed more and more pointless.

She opened her door and walked to her bed, sitting down on it and staring into space. Sakura hadn't let her fears crush her just yet, but they were still present. How she wanted to cry! The fear and hopelessness… But Sakura was stubborn. And she wasn't going to cry. At least, not yet.

With a huff Sakura flopped backwards onto her bed. It got really boring at the base when everyone was out on missions. Sasori and Deidara had left that morning, to who knows where, and weren't due back until nightfall. Already Sakura was missing Deidara's pranks. They always livened up her day.

Itachi and Kisame were gone too. And Sakura was missing Kisame's jokes. Even Itachi would pat her on the back or hold a door open for her. Itachi found her reading one of his books he had left lying around one afternoon and had now begun bringing back books for her to read. But that just confused Sakura even more. Didn't Itachi know she had been Sasuke's teammate?

Sakura laughed out loud. It had been over two months since she had thought of Sasuke. She wondered what his reaction would be if he saw Sakura and Itachi being friendly. He'd probably have a heart attack.

'_I guess even murderers have their good sides.' Inner Sakura thought sarcastically._

"Guess so." Sakura sighed aloud. She got up to go look into a dresser the Akatsuki had recently given her. It was filled with simple shirts and pants that she could wear. But Sakura missed her weapons. She felt naked without them. Vulnerable.

Sakura changed out of her pajamas and into the clothes, then padded downstairs into the kitchen and eating area. It was time to raid the kitchen.

"Let's see…" she muttered as she looked through the food. By the gods! Was it an illusion? Sakura said a quick prayer of thanks and snatched her prize. Pocky!

She looked at the name on the box.

_Do not eat. This Pocky belongs to Hidan._

'Not anymore.' Sakura thought as she rubbed the marker with her thumb to smear the name. 'Mine now.'

Walking back to the sitting area, she picked up one of Itachi's books and began to read while she slowly ate her Pocky, savoring the taste in her mouth. Absently, her hand reached down to pick up another one as she kept reading. She didn't look up when she heard someone walk up.

"Aren't those Hidan's?" Someone asked. Sakura looked up to find Itachi watching her with his unnerving eyes of his. They matched Sasuke's perfectly. How they looked alike.

"Don't tell him or I'll have to kill you." Sakura warned, pushing away the book. She had already read that one twice. And she had already memorized it the first time.

She picked up another Pocky stick and stuck it in her mouth. Her hands closed around the box protectively, and she watched Itachi closely in case he tried to take it from her. He shrugged and sat on the couch next to her.

"Relax, I'm not going to take your Pocky." He said, his mouth twitching in an almost smile. Sakura still watched him. The members of the Akatsuki learned the hard way that taking her food was hazardous.

"Here, I got you a new book." He passed her a large book about two inches thick. "Try to make this one last two days at least."

"I won't make any promises." Sakura said as she glanced at the title. It read _Healing Jutsus: the Rare and Unexplained Vol. 4._ "No way! You got me a copy of the latest _Healing Jutsus_?"

Sakura picked it up and held it reverently. She had already owned the first three that Lady Tsunade had made her study. They were actually quite interesting, especially for medical ninjas.

"I thought you'd like it." Itachi said with a small smile.

"Hey. Were you even going to mention I was the one who found it for her?" Kisame said as he walked in. He smiled at Sakura. "I also bought us a cookbook for us to try."

Sakura stared at them. A thought just hit her. From her small limited knowledge in psychology, the Akatsuki members seemed to be seeing her as… a pet? Or if she were to be a bit bolder in her hypothesis, they might even be seeing her as one of them. Was it possible in such a short amount of time? It had only been two months, although it was closer to three.

"What?" Kisame watched her confused face. He turned to Itachi. "I think we've spoiled her too much and she's going into shock."

"I know what will help." Itachi said, and started reaching for Sakura's Pocky.

She instantly snapped out of her thoughts and snatched the Pocky away from Itachi's hand, glaring at him. "MINE."

Kisame laughed. "Come on Sakura. Let's start on dinner."

Sakura glanced at the bags in his hands and began to laugh.

"What?" both Itachi and Kisame asked her.

"I just can't imagine you guys, or any of the Akatsuki members, going grocery shopping!" She said between gasps. But an image of Kisame and Itachi loaded down with groceries in public only made her begin laughing again.

Kisame put the groceries on the table and began putting things away. "Well we have to eat somehow."

Itachi's mouth was threatening to smile. Finally Sakura got a grip on herself and went to help Kisame in the kitchen. She was still hiding a smile as she did so, every now and then a snort escaping her.

Finally Kisame sighed. "Okay, Sakura, I think you've wounded my pride enough. Now please stop laughing at me."

"I'm trying." Sakura said, but she couldn't stop smiling. "Itachi, would be so kind to take my book to my room for me?"

Itachi nodded silently and picked up the book.

Kisame opened the cookbook he had bought for them. "Now, let's see what to make."

Sakura went to stand beside him and offered him some Pocky. Kisame mumbled his thanks and they both leaned on the counter and flipped through the pages of the cookbook. And that was how Hidan and Kakuzu found them when they came in.

"What the hell?" Hidan yelled, seeing them with his Pocky. "You bastards! You ate all my Pocky!"

Sakura and Kisame exchanged smirks as Hidan stared forlornly at the empty box, turning it upside down and letting the crumbs fall into his palm.

"Who is the fiend that did this?" he demanded.

Sakura and Kisame immediately pointed at each other.

"Both of you will die now!" Hidan said, pulling out his scythe. But just then Itachi came back. Sakura and Kisame quickly glanced at each other, then they both pointed at Itachi.

"It was him!" they both yelled.

Itachi went still and looked up, confused. "What?"

"You will die, Itachi Uchiha!" Hidan growled, turning towards Itachi. But then Hidan went still as Itachi caught him in his genjutsu.

Sakura and Kisame turned back to the cookbook to let Itachi and Hidan work things out. Kakuzu just sighed and went to his room. Eventually Itachi made Hidan settle down, although the Pocky thief was never determined.

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

Naruto was on a mission with Shikamaru, Neji, Ino, and surprisingly, Hinata. Everyone on the team had been shocked when Tsunade relayed the last person who would be coming with Naruto to investigate a possible sighting of Sasuke, including Hinata herself. Hinata had just walked in to deliver some papers to Tsunade when the Hokage called her name.

"What did I do?" Hinata had asked, confused.

"I called your name because you'll be going on a mission to investigate a possible sighting of Sasuke." Tsunade told her, an evil glint in her eye.

"What? Me?" Hinata had gasped as Ino walked into the office with a scroll.

"What about you?" Ino asked her as she placed the scroll on Tsunade's desk.

"Ino! Lady Tsunade wants me to go on a mission with Naruto, Shikamaru, and Neji!" Hinata looked at Ino for help.

"What's wrong with that?" Ino asked.

"It's a mission that concerns Sasuke." Naruto answered for Hinata.

"Oh…" Ino stared at Hinata, and a peculiar look passed between the two; they seemed to be having a silent conversation. "Tsunade, if Hinata's going, then I am."

Tsunade choked on her sake. "That's a five man team! No, I only assigned Hinata to go."

Ino turned to Tsunade. "Hinata is still a novice as a medical ninja. And Sasuke and his team are both very dangerous. Now I'm not nearly as skilled as- uh, as some…," Sakura's name went unspoken, but everyone heard it, "but if Naruto and the others have to fight Sasuke, they will need an advanced medical ninja."

Tsunade and Ino had a staring contest until Tsunade finally sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "You are right. Fine. Ino, you can join the team, but nobody else!"

"Thank you, Lady Tsunade." Ino bowed and they had left to go on the mission.

Now Naruto and the others were traveling through a forest, jumping from branch to branch with less noise as one would expect. Shikamaru and Neji flanked Naruto, and Ino and Hinata brought up the rear. Naruto jumped another branch as his thoughts turned to his teammates.

They were going to look for Sasuke- who willingly left them- while Sakura had been missing for two months now, a prisoner of the Akatsuki. They should have been looking for her! But they had no idea where she was. The Akatsuki could have taken her anywhere by now. Naruto clenched his teeth and focused on the task at hand.

The sightings of Sasuke led them to mountain range known for its complicated tunnel systems, long abandoned when the resources went dry. The group was very careful searching the most prominent tunnels. They had to mark their way through the tunnels; the locals warned them that people had gotten lost inside and many never made it out alive.

They searched the area for hours to no avail. Finally Shikamaru called the search to a close and they head back to the camp they had made not too far from the mountain's base. Ino and Hinata left to go into town to buy some food, and came back with cheeses, fruits, and bread that they warmed over the fire.

"It seems we'll be here for a while." Neji said, looking around.

Ino and Hinata passed the food around. Ino sat next to Shikamaru and they began to chat, while Hinata sat alone, blushing as she glanced at Naruto. But Naruto was busy scanning the area for any sign that Sasuke was watching them.

Neji sighed as he took a seat next to Hinata. She gasped in surprise, then hung her head to hide her face behind her bangs. Nervously she began to fiddle with her fingers.

"Calm down, Hinata." Neji said calmly.

That only seemed to make her even more nervous. Neji sighed and put his hand on her hands to stop them from twiddling. He handed her an apple.

"Calm down." He told her again. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not that scary am I?"

Hinata stared at him. "You told a joke!" she blurted.

It was Neji's turn to stare at her. "And you spoke without stuttering." He pointed out to her.

Hinata turned red and looked down.

Neji sighed. "Stop looking down when you're nervous. Start standing your ground, Hinata. No one here is against you."

Hinata nodded as she found the strength to look back up at Neji. A small smile appeared on his lips and he patted her on the head. "There you go."

"Th-thanks." She mumbled, glancing at a bracelet on her right wrist that she began to twist and turn. Staring at it, seemed to draw confidence from it. She looked back up at Neji.

"Th-there's something I-I have to tell y-you." She said, her voice getting stronger.

"Go ahead." Neji said, confused.

"You are an arrogant man, Neji!" She blurted. "And sometimes y-you're a fool and miss the things that are really i-important in life, and you let y-your pride cloud your judgment!"

Neji's mouth dropped open and he gaped at her. Ino howled with laughter as Shikamaru and Naruto stared at Hinata. Gripping her stomach, Ino laughed as she made her way to Hinata and dragged her friend away.

"Good… job… Hinata!" Ino gasped between laughter.

Hinata hid her face in her hands. "Oh he's going to be really mad at me now!"

Ino kept smiling as she put her hands on Hinata's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "No, he's going to start respecting you now, as he should."

Hinata blinked at Ino. "If it were you! You're always the confident one…"

Ino put her hands on her hips. "What is the difference between me and Sakura?" she asked her expectantly.

"Um…" Hinata put a finger to her cheek. "You're a lot more rash than her, you're not as smart and you never think ahead, and you have a foul mouth…"

"Exactly." Ino said. "We all have our faults, Hinata. But we shouldn't let them define who we are. Don't hide because you're imperfect. Admit that you are, then move on. Life goes on even after we make mistakes."

Hinata smiled warmly at Ino. "Yeah… I guess so. Thanks, Ino."

"No prob." Ino grinned. "Now let's head back to see if the boys have shut their mouths yet." And then Ino went into another fit of laughter.

When the girls got back to the camp, the guys stared at Hinata. She immediately began to shrink under their gaze, but Ino pinched her arm and smiled at her reassuringly. Hinata nodded and stood taller.

"Hey guys!" Ino called happily, laughter still in her eyes. "I see your jaws didn't fall off!"

Shikamaru shook his head and grumbled about 'troublesome women' while Naruto's hand flew to his mouth and Neji sighed and agreed with Shikamaru.

"Neji…" Hinata started. "I-I'm sorry about my words-"

"Apology accepted." He said.

"-but they were true." She said, looking him in the eyes.

Ino began to laugh again at the look on Neji's face, who was even more shocked than after Hinata's first outburst.

Shikamaru's eyes widened at Hinata, but then he turned to glare at Ino. "You're laughing like a hyena, Ino. It's annoying."

Ino just grinned at Shikamaru. "Do you _see_ the look on Neji's face? It's priceless! How can you not laugh at that?"

Even Naruto was laughing this time, walking over to Hinata to pat her on the back. "Nice, Hinata."

They all settled around the fire, Hinata's face as red as a tomato. She sat nervously next to Neji, with Ino beside her for strength. Shikamaru sat on Ino's other side, with Naruto between him and Neji.

"So where did this burst of confidence come from?" Neji asked Hinata politely. "I doubt it was my emotional speech five minutes ago."

Hinata ducked her head and twisted the bracelet on her wrist. Ino saw the movement and smiled. Her own hand reached down to touch an identical bracelet on her right wrist as well.

"It's that bracelet, isn't it?" Ino asked Hinata.

Hinata's head jerked up and she smiled at Ino. "Yeah." She answered, looking at Ino's bracelet.

"Hey, you both have identical bracelets!" Naruto exclaimed. Shikamaru and Neji both glanced at the girls beside them, at the bracelets on their wrists.

"Where did you get those?" Shikamaru asked.

"They were part of a set called the Triplets." Ino said.

"But there's only two." Naruto pointed out.

"Thank you Captain Obvious." Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"Just sayin'." Naruto crossed his arms.

Hinata sniffed and everyone turned to look at her wipe away a tear. "There were three, originally."

Neji awkwardly placed his hand on her shoulder. "Who had the third?" he asked softly.

Hinata and Ino stared at each other as they answered in unison, "Sakura."

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

At dinner was Hidan, Kakuzu, Itachi, Kisame, and Sakura. None of the others had returned yet, so Sakura wrapped up the leftovers and put them in the refrigerator before going to join the men at the table. They had already started eating.

"Mmmm! We chose the right recipe." Kisame said to her as she sat down.

"Well it's definitely better than the shit we used to eat." Hidan grumbled, still upset about his Pocky, but the food seemed to cheer him up.

"Hey, I cooked that 'shit' you used to eat." Kisame growled.

"And before Sakura came along it was terrible." Hidan pointed out.

Sakura laughed. It was true. The first time she had joined the Akatsuki at the table to eat she had realized they had been eating the same disgusting food she had been given in her cell. She had told them how terrible the food was and asked who the cook was. Then she offered to help Kisame cook.

"Thank the gods that she came along." Kakuzu grumbled. "Your cooking really was terrible."

"Well no one else offered to cook." Kisame said defensively.

The food really was good though. When dinner was done Sakura made sure everyone cleaned up after themselves, and then she went to her room to start on her book. When she passed the window in the hall across from her door, Sakura paused to look out it. There was a full moon tonight.

Just like every time she looked at the night sky, Sakura wondered if her friends were looking at it as well. And Lady Tsunade. And Naruto. She lowered her eyes and walked across to her door, letting it swing open as she entered.

With the Akatsuki members downstairs, everything was quiet. Sakura hated the quiet. It let her thoughts wander back to Konoha. She closed her eyes and imagined herself back in the village streets.

The sun would be warm on her back, the smell of fresh leaves blowing through the air. She remembered the constant rumble of conversations filling the air, the smell of the food vendors. Her friends waving to her, Naruto saying something stupid, Shikamaru complaining, Hinata blushing, and Ino making her laugh. She imagined Sai's quiet presence, Neji's seriousness, and Lee's constant fawning. And then Lady Tsunade's bossy voice that held a certain warmth for Sakura and for Sakura only.

Sakura put her head in her hands and stood in the darkness for a while, the moon on her back. But the moonlight was cold, not warm and welcoming like sunlight. She took a deep breath as another wave of homesickness passed.

'I will escape.' She thought determinedly, lifting her head. Her eyes were dry and she was proud that she hadn't broken down and cried yet. Not once since she had been brought here. 'I am strong.'

Sakura sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. Tomorrow would make it three months since she had been captured. She muttered curses at herself and her weakness for being caught in the first place and she reached down to lift her shirt over her head.

"You shouldn't change with your door open." Sasori's voice pierced the darkness.

Sakura yelped in surprise and held her shirt against her chest. "What are you doing?" she asked him angrily.

Damn Sasori; just leaning against that doorframe all calm and collected, with the moonlight outlining his silhouette. Sakura wished she could see his face to be able to tell what he was thinking. She also wished she could see it so that she could slap it. Why couldn't he have just keep walking?

"Well I was on my way to my room when I heard some foul language coming from your room." Sasori answered calmly. 'Baka!' she thought.

"Well now you know it was me. Now leave." She demanded.

"Are you ordering me around?" Sasori asked in a mildly shocked voice, although Sakura knew his face would be just as calm as ever. "I thought _I_ was the one keeping _you_ prisoner."

"Oh stop mocking me." Sakura snapped. Without thinking she walked up to Sasori to slap him in the face. She had meant to. But when her arm had swung back to hit him, something stopped her. She couldn't move her body!

Sasori chuckled and pushed off of the doorframe. Coming into her room, he closed the door behind him, leaving them in darkness. He quickly closed the space between them, leaning down to whisper in her ear, "Such a bossy woman."

Sakura gritted her teeth. In the darkness she could see the threads of Sasori's chakra holding her as he would a puppet.

"I am not one of your puppets!" she hissed. "Let. Me. Go."

"It was sad, you know." He continued, and Sakura could hear him moving in the darkness. Light flooded the room as he lit the candle on her nightstand. Just like that day in the forest, his scent began wrapping itself around her, making her knees go weak.

"As more time passed with you here, I started to see that fire in your eyes begin to fade." His voice was oddly gentle. "And it hurt to watch you whither inside. Don't think that you could hide it. I saw your hope beginning to crumble."

"I said to let me go!" she growled, still frozen with her arm back to slap him. But he kept her stuck there, while he walked around her and out of her peripheral vision. Sakura's instincts were screaming. The predator was out of her sight. Goose bumps crawled over her arms.

"I want to try an experiment, if you would be so kind as to help me." He chuckled.

"You tortured me, remember?" Sakura hissed. She heard the creak of her bed, telling her that he had sat down on the mattress. "Why would I help you?"

"I was afraid, at first." He admitted in that aggravating calm voice. "Such human emotions are strange to me, even now. I thought I could resist them, pretend they weren't there… But they would not be denied."

"What… are you talking about?" she asked, confused.

Without her telling it to, her body turned around to face him. Sasori was sitting relaxed on her bed, watching her. He was leaned over resting his elbows lazily on his knees, right hand held up where the chakra lines that controlled her were attached to. His eyes were blank, but he studied her intently.

"Come here." He said quietly, twitching his fingers.

Sakura struggled against his powers, but found his control too strong. One step forward. Another step. Until she was standing right in front of him. She unwillingly leaned down until her face was an inch away from his. His eyes regarded her almost curiously, but it was hard to tell with his calm blank face.

"What… what are you doing?" she asked nervously.

"I don't even know myself." He answered, shrugging. "It's an experiment."

Sakura again struggled against his chakra, but her futile efforts were only rewarded from a twitch of a smirk from Sasori. He could feel her resisting, but knew she wouldn't be able to escape. Sakura really wanted to punch him now.

"What exactly is this experiment?" she tried to keep him preoccupied.

"Tell me, Sakura," he said, ignoring her question. "What is your opinion of me? And be honest."

Sakura studied his face, but it yielded no information as to what he was thinking behind that calm demeanor. Giving up, she thought about what to say to him. It was hard to see past the prejudice of her Konoha training to see how she really felt about this man since she had first been in his company.

"I think you are…" she searched for the words. "It's aggravating how your face is always, _always_ calm. You don't even really smirk, you just smile calmly, then stab me with a knife or whatever. And you're impatient-"

"I've never been a patient man." Sasori said.

Sakura glared at him for interrupting her. "You're arrogant and cocky. And slightly creepy."

"Creepy?" he asked.

"Well, with all those puppets of yours… it's creepy. Not to mention the fact that you actually turn real people into your puppets." She shuddered. "You are also a killer, murderer. You are, to say the least, a criminal."

Sasori nodded. "I have done terrible things in this life. But I do not regret. This world that we live in," he shrugged, "it's all about survival of the fittest. And the powerful."

"And you're old."

"Huh?" this seemed to throw him off, although his only reaction was to refocus his gaze on her.

"Well yeah." Sakura would have shrugged if she could move. "You were around twenty when you became a member of the early Akatsuki, right? But then you turned yourself into one of your own fighting puppets, effectively stopping the aging processes on your body. You thought you were immortal."

"Until you came along." He interrupted, and there was the tiniest amount of anger that Sakura could detect. "Which, by the way, would you mind telling me how you did that?"

Sakura smirked. "You couldn't get me to tell you three months ago, two months ago, one month ago, when you were torturing me, and when you were begging me. What makes you think I'll tell you now?"

"Tch. I never begged." He growled. Then his face returned to its calm façade. "But I see what you mean."

"Anyway, essentially, right now you and your body are around twenty years old." Sakura continued. "But you yourself, Sasori, have been around for almost thirty to forty years. So you're actually almost three times my age, when your body is only a few years older than me."

"Yet you still see me as old?" Sasori asked calmly.

"Eh. In a way." She said.

Then Sasori did something Sakura would have never expected. He threw his head back, and laughed. Her mouth dropped open, and she would have fallen on her butt in surprise if her body hadn't still been attached to his chakra strings. She didn't know that this man was capable of laughing!

'_It's a rather attractive laugh. Deep. Seeexy.' Inner Sakura popped up._

'Hush! I can't believe you!' Sakura snapped.

'_Oh come one. You've got this sexy bad boy sitting right on your bed.' Her Inner self snickered._

She was too shocked at those thoughts that Sakura couldn't even snap back at her Inner self.

"Is it really so shocking that I can laugh?" Sasori asked her, peering at the expression on her face. There were still traces of amusement on his face, but that calm façade was coming back.

"Well, yeah." She said, still blinking with surprise. "You're always so serious and… brooding."

He quirked an eyebrow. "Brooding?" Sasori chuckled. "You are one amusing girl, dear Sakura. I've never met any quite like you."

"Um… Thanks?" she studied him. He seemed to be… relaxing? Would wonders ever cease? Sakura went over the events of the day to see if she had hit her head at all.

"What are you thinking?" Sasori asked her.

"Did I hit my head today? Is this some kind of hallucination?" she asked abruptly.

Sasori actually _smiled_ in amusement. Sakura's heart did a flip, which just made her even more anxious. He had smiled!

'_He is actually… pretty… when he smiles…' Her Inner self seemed just as shocked as she was._

"You're pretty!" she blurted. 'Real smooth, Sakura.' She thought.

Sasori raised his eyebrows.

"When you smile, I mean." Sakura stuttered. 'Why is this happening to me?' she thought, panicking.

Sasori curled his index finger, and her face leaned in close enough for her to feel his breath. Sakura tried not to hyperventilate. Of all the things that could have happened to her as a captive of the Akatsuki, this was one scenario she had never imagined.

"Sakura…" Sasori said calmly.

She gulped.

"Remember that experiment I mentioned earlier?"

Sakura's brows drew together in confusion. If she had been able to move on her own, she would have rubbed her head. Where was he getting at?

"Yeah…?" she breathed, her breath touching his face.

"I want to commence the experiment now." He said, his voice getting oddly softer.

"Um…"

"I'm going to kiss you now." He said calmly without waiting for her to finish. Now she was sure she had definitely hit her head and just couldn't remember doing so. The real Sasori would never say such a thing! Right?

His eyes were locked onto hers.

"If you like the kiss, you may kiss back." He continued slowly. Which was good for Sakura; her thoughts were already having a hard time keeping up with him.

Sasori leaned forward, closing that last centimeter of space between their lips, touching hers lightly. His chakra strings controlling her body were the only things that were keeping Sakura's legs from buckling. Her brain was having a sensory overload. There was no way Sasori was actually kissing her!

'_Oh my god did Sasori just kiss- OH MY GOD HE IS!'_

"I'm releasing you now." He murmured against her lips.

Sakura felt the strings controlling her release, and her body was once again hers to control. For a moment she didn't move. Then, ever so slightly, she hesitantly leaned in a little bit. It was an experiment, right? Stealing her resolve, Sakura kissed back.

They pulled away. Sakura turned around, shocked and angry at herself. Behind her she heard the bed creak as Sasori stood up behind her. His hands were on her shoulders, turning her to look back at him.

Sakura knew she was falling to a point where she couldn't be saved. This was bad. She was a Leaf ninja, and the Akatsuki were her enemies. But she longed to touch and be touched by Sasori.

"N-no…" she shook her head. "You are… my enemy."

Sakura placed her hands on Sasori's chest to push him away, but instead her hands began to rub his chest, feeling the hard muscles under his shirt. Traitorous hands. She pressed her forehead against his collarbone and inhaled his scent.

"You confuse me, Sakura." Sasori murmured. "I didn't expect you to respond by kissing back."

Sakura gasped as his lips touched her ear. Her hands grasped his shoulders as his began to stroke her back. At some point she had dropped her shirt, she realized.

"What would you have me do?" Sasori asked her.

'_Such a sexy voice…' Inner Sakura sighed. 'Ah screw it.'_

Suddenly Sakura knew there was only one thing she wanted at that moment. Sasori made a noise of surprise as she reached up and crushed her lips against his. She felt his lips curl into a smile as he pressed her body against his.

Sakura loved the feeling of his hands on her hips and her arms wrapped around his neck. One of his arms move to wrap around her waist, and other around shoulders, and their bodies were tingling where they touched. She let out a small whimper as he broke away from her lips and began trailing his along her ear. Sakura shivered.

"The bed." Sasori said calmly as he reached over and pinched the wick of the candle, plunging them into darkness.

Somehow they were in her bed now, and Sakura was desperately pulling off Sasori's shirt. She gasped as his hands ran down her side, leaving her skin cold when he removed his hand. She ran her fingers through his hair and groaned as he began to kiss her neck. Gods, she was so willing in his manipulation it was shameful.

It was her turn. Sakura pushed Sasori off of her and he blinked in confusion before she pressed him down under her. She sat on top of him, her hands roaming his smooth, hard chest in the darkness. She leaned down and licked, smiling when he let out a moan. Well well. She would have never imagined that she'd be making Sasori moan like that.

His hands came up and felt for her chest bindings, unwrapping the binds her while she stroked his chest. She leaned over him and let her breath trickle across his neck, one hand cupping his face while the other trailed down his chest. Sakura moaned as his hands began touching her, moving up and down her back, then boldly cupping her breasts. Sakura gasped.

Sasori chuckled and pulled her down to lay on top of him. Sakura pressed herself against him and wrapped her arms around him, kissing him thoroughly.

Sasori returned her kisses with wicked flicks of his tongue.

"You're not a bad kisser for someone who hasn't romanced in twenty years." She laughed softly.

"And you are a good lover after all." He replied as she remembered back to when they had been discussing how she had seduced men before, and he had asked whether she was a good lover or not.

"There's a lot more than this." She teased, biting his lower lip. Sasori's hand stroked downwards and she gasped when his hand reached its destination.

"Indeed." He chuckled. "But I do believe we need to remove more of our clothes before we can get to that."

His hand came back up and trailed down her front again, starting at her collarbone and ending past her belly button. Sakura whimpered. She rubbed her own hands over his abs before moving to stroked his back as she pressed her body against him.

"Mm, I love your body, Sasori." She whispered. "Why did you ever give it up to become a boring puppet?"

"Because I didn't have you around to make me appreciate it." Sasori chuckled. "Besides, if I hadn't, I wouldn't be here, twenty years later with the same body. And I doubt you'd like that."

"Mm, no I wouldn't." she mumbled as she licked his ear. She felt Sasori shiver and smiled at the fact that she could make him feel the same way she was.

"It has been a long time since I've been with a woman, Sakura." Sasori breathed into her ear. "Even before I became a puppet."

"Then let me remind what to do…" Sakura giggled.

* * *

><p><strong>O.O well well well, Sakura... who knew? What will happen next? Oh the suspense!<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN NARUTO**

**Character Surprise! Read it, Love it, Review it please!**

**Update:**** I HAVE CHANGED SOME THINGS IN THE STORY. (Mainly in chapters 2 and 3)**

* * *

><p><em><span>Chapter Four: Guess who's back?<span>_

She fell asleep in his arms, leaving him feeling more alive than he had in decades. No woman had ever been as good a lover as Sakura. And he hadn't forgotten how to please a woman, even after twenty-some years.

They were still covered in sweat as they laid together, entwined in each other's arms. Sakura had been the one to pull the covers over their naked bodies before closing her eyes, a pleasant smile on her lips. Sasori was still reveling in her scent as he had fallen asleep.

The next morning Sasori woke early so that none of the other members might find the two of them together. He looked down at the beautiful face in his arms and kissed her lips. They still tasted so sweet. He ran his hand down her back as she yawned, waking.

Last night she had shown she wasn't nearly as innocent as she appeared. This girl was a wicked vixen, and a bold lover. Even he had been surprised when she had been the one to begin the kiss. Sasori for the first time was thankful that becoming a puppet had stopped time for him so that he could be here in this moment with her. From all his memories with other women, so long ago, none compared to the petite pink-haired girl lying next to him.

'Look at me.' He thought with a mental smirk. 'I've gone soft.'

There was a pleased smile on her face as she opened her eyes. Sasori felt a strange warm feeling inside him. Suddenly her eyes clouded and her smile was gone.

"What have I done?" she gasped, tensing.

Sasori wrapped his arms around her and brought her close, putting his forehead against hers. She didn't try to push him away, but instead let him caress her as she fought the conflicting emotions inside her. Sasori watched the emotions as they flitted across her face; guilt, happiness, regret, and finally resignation.

"What's done is done." She murmured, looking up at him with some guilt remaining in her eyes. But she still smiled at him. "I enjoyed last night."

"So did I." he whispered, kissing her passionately.

Sakura sighed after a few more kisses. "What are we going to do now?"

"As far as I'm concerned, we are going to do this every night." Sasori said as he went for her neck. Sakura moaned at his touch.

"You know… that's not what… I mean." She said breathing heavily.

Sasori sighed and pulled away. "I don't think it's a good idea to just announce it to the others."

"Then what should we do?"

"Just let them figure it out for themselves." He shrugged. "We can't be too open about our relationship. Don't forget what these men are; what they have done. We don't spare loved ones or innocents."

Sakura nodded. "I know." She said softly. "All of you are criminals."

Sasori thought of how the others were kind to her. "I doubt they will try to hurt you unless you were to turn against the Akatsuki."

"Sasori." Sakura said. "I am still a ninja of Konoha."

Sasori sighed. Damn her logic. "We all remember that. But you are trapped here with us now."

She laughed mischievously. "I don't think I mind so much anymore now that I have someone to keep me busy."

Sakura began to rub his chest, making him want her again. He stroked her hair and inhaled her scent, floral with a hint of spice. It was so _her_. He kissed her ear.

"We should get up. I need breakfast." He chuckled at her disappointed face. "I let you cook, okay?"

She nodded and they got out of bed to get dress. Sasori glanced her worried face a couple times. The guilt was visible there.

"I feel like I've betrayed Konoha and all my friends." She admitted when she caught him watching her.

"I understand." Sasori said calmly.

"Do you?" she asked him doubtfully.

"You feel guilty for being happy with me." He shrugged. "Don't be."

She sighed and smiled at him, her eyes brazenly roaming his body as he was reaching for his shirt. Sasori enjoyed the feel of her eyes on his chest and back. When he had pulled his shirt over him, he heard her huff in disappointment.

"You can see them again tonight. Or even sooner." He promised her. Sakura grinned and kissed him before heading for the door.

She stuck her head out for a moment, then turned back to him. "All clear."

Then went to the kitchen and began making breakfast, Sakura pulling out a waffle maker that Kisame must have bought the other day. Sasori found the waffle mix, and then he and Sakura began making breakfast for themselves and the Akatsuki.

"I'll smell something positively heavenly!" Deidara exclaimed as he skipped down the stairs, followed by a bleary-eyed Kisame. He was way too cheery in the mornings. Sasori went back to mixing the batter.

"Whoa, it's strange seeing the two of you together without you guys making dagger eyes at each other." Deidara looked between them. He walked over to Sakura and gave a peck on her cheek as he accepted the waffles she handed him.

Sasori scowled, but knew Deidara didn't mean anything by it, so let it slide. Kisame smiled at Sakura as he accepted his own plate of waffles. Itachi walked in as he was pulling his hair into a low ponytail.

"You're making us breakfast?" he asked Sakura, the Uchiha genuinely surprised for once.

Sakura shrugged. "I've got nothing else to do." She said and winked at Sasori.

Kisame and Deidara were fighting over the syrup and didn't notice it, but Itachi did, and looked between them. Then he shrugged and walked over to the table, snatching the syrup from both Kisame and Deidara.

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

There was a tense silence as everyone thought back to the pink haired medical ninja with a wicked right hook and snappy comebacks. A friend close to all of them. None of them had ever imagined that she would be gone.

Hinata sniffed again, and Ino reached out to grip her hand. "We will never give up, Hinata." Ino said quietly.

"Damn right we won't!" Naruto growled. "You'll see, Hinata. She'll be back and this will all have been a bad dream."

"But it's not a dream." Hinata whispered.

Neji put his arm around her shoulder and hugged her. It was so awkward to do so; it had been years since he had last hugged her, back when they were childhood friends. But he didn't like to see her cry, especially since every time she cried it reminded him that he had made her cry all too often when he had created the rift in their friendship.

"Sakura wouldn't want us to cry, Hinata." Neji told her.

"Yeah," Ino smiled sadly. "She'd be hitting us in the head and yelling at us how crying doesn't help in any way."

Hinata laughed. "Yeah, she would be."

There was a rustle in the trees, a movement, and in a second everyone had jumped up and a defensive circle with their backs to the fire pit, weapons drawn.

"Who's there?" Naruto called out.

"The one you're looking for." Came Sasuke's voice came from the trees as he stepped into the firelight.

Everyone stared at him, assessing the three people behind him. There was a girl behind him in slutty clothes who had red hair and wore glasses. Beside her was a young man about Sasuke's age with mauve hair, a large sword, and a grin that showed off sharpened teeth. Behind them was a large man with orange hair and surprisingly kind eyes.

"Well he could have just done that in the first place instead of making us search the mountain." Ino muttered.

"Hush, Ino." Shikamaru glared at her.

"Just sayin'." She shrugged.

"Naruto." Sasuke stared at them. "I see you brought friends this time, but I overheard your conversation. Where's Sakura?"

There was another tense silence and Sasuke picked up on it right away. "Maybe I should be asking what happened to Sakura?" he asked.

"Who's Sakura?" the redhead behind him asked with a hint of jealousy in her nasally and obnoxious voice. Ino decided she didn't like that girl.

"Why does it matter to you?" Neji spoke up.

Sasuke's gaze turned to Neji. "A Hyuuga. Neji, if I remember correctly."

Neji nodded.

"It matters because she is my ex-teammate." Sasuke said, his voice slightly irritated. "Plus, I am curious."

But both Neji and Shikamaru saw the worry that flashed in his eyes for a moment. They glanced at each other, a thought passing between them. Both turned back to Sasuke.

"How troublesome you and your team are." Shikamaru said obnoxiously.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Naruto swiveled around to glare at Shikamaru, but Ino caught Naruto's eye and winked at him. She understood what Shikamaru was doing. Then Ino turned to Hinata and made a hand sign for her to be quiet. Hinata nodded.

"Naruto by himself is such a handful." Shikamaru complained. "And with the Akatsuki after him we have to follow him around in order to keep in protected. And then you're off gallivanting with criminals while your annoying and loyal friend here convinces the Hokage to let him look for you."

Naruto knew Shikamaru didn't mean it, but he couldn't help clenching his fists, knowing that there were people in the village who would have agreed.

"Yeah," Neji agreed and Sasuke turned to listen to him. "And then your other teammate… Sakura, right? Then she has to go missing! And because she's the Hokage's precious apprentice, the village begins to scour the country looking for her, wasting valuable resources."

Sasuke's fists clenched, but he kept face blank.

"They made such a big deal out of it!" Shikamaru complained. "Ninjas disappear all the time. Sakura wasn't the first kunoichi to go missing, and she won't be the last."

Hinata shivered at the truth in those words but kept her gaze down. The words were hurtful, considering they were talking about Sakura, but she knew it was all an act. But still, they were hurtful.

"How can you say that?" Sasuke said with a dangerously calm voice. But everyone could sense the tight fury that was building inside him. "Naruto, how can you let them say that?"

Naruto clenched jaw and turned to Sasuke. "I…"

"Because you know it's true, Naruto." Ino said sadly. "Sakura is gone. Too much time has passed and you know it. There's no way she's still alive by now."

"And why do you say that?" Sasuke snapped, fury in his eyes, but he kept his voice calm. "Weren't you supposed to be her best friend? Some friend you are then."

'_That hurts_.' Ino thought.

"Sasuke," she said angrily. "When a kunoichi goes missing, the first two days are the window of opportunity. But after a week the kunoichi is likely dead. After a month there is no way she's coming back."

Hinata glanced at Ino, knowing that saying those words was killing Ino on the inside. She would have broken down and cried if she had to say such words about Sakura. '_Forgive us, Sakura_.' She thought.

"And how long has it been?" Sasuke inquired.

"Almost three months now." Naruto replied, closing his eyes in pain for a moment. "It was my fault."

"How was it your fault?" Sasuke's voice went cold.

'_Well, well_.' Ino thought. '_Looks like someone's about to get very pissed off_.'

"Answer me, Naruto! What did you do?" Sasuke demanded.

"I should have been there!" Naruto yelled, a tear trailing down his cheek. All his suppressed guilt came out now; all those nights he blamed himself for not getting to her in time.

"Her partner was killed, and she was left to fight alone!" Naruto's fury was intimidating to everyone but Sasuke. "But I let my anger control me and I allowed myself to be tricked into fighting someone else farther away. They separated us, and I let it happen! She was already weak from healing Kankuro from that poison, but she came along to help anyway! And I took too long to get back to her… I played right into the Akatsuki's hands…"

Sasuke glared at Naruto. "You let her be taken by the _Akatsuki_?"

"Well sorry, next time we'll make sure she's taken by the Mist Ninja." Ino snapped at him.

"This is such a touching reunion." Shikamaru grumbled.

"SHUT UP!" Sasuke and Naruto yelled at Shikamaru, and then they continued to argue. Sasuke's team Hebi was watching him in stunned silence. They had never seen him lose his temper before. Ino was enjoying the look on their faces.

"Well we finally got him to lose his temper. Now what?" Ino whispered to Shikamaru.

"We wing it." He mumbled back.

"That's reassuring." Neji commented.

Ino rolled her eyes and raised her voice as she called to Naruto. "Come on, Naruto, let's get this over with."

Naruto and Sasuke glanced back at her.

"So you've come to take me back while Sakura is still out there and in more danger than I am?" Sasuke asked in that dangerously calm voice.

Naruto growled.

"Well she's not in danger if she's dead." Neji said sarcastically.

"YOU SHUT UP, HYUUGA!" Sasuke roared.

"Death would be better for her." Hinata muttered.

"What did you say?" Sasuke turned to look at Hinata for the first time.

"I said that death would be better for her!" Hinata said, her voice shaky but she kept her eyes up. "Think about it! She was captured by the most powerful criminal organization in the country, and as far as we know, all its members are evil, sick, demented men. What are men like that going to do with a pretty girl like Sakura?"

Everyone was quiet and in shock.

"Everyone back in the village didn't want to think about it! They just kept saying 'she'll be fine' and 'she's a strong girl'. They just couldn't bear the thought of what those men might do to her!" There were tears on her cheeks, but Hinata's anger allowed her to ignore them as she continued. "But I thought about it! I couldn't seem to _stop_ thinking about it!"

Hinata's tears slowed, but her rage was what left her trembling and clutching her kunai until her knuckles were white. Then she finished her rant with, "Sakura managed to send us one last clue as to where they were taking her, but we still weren't able to find her! Yet you don't even want us to find you, but here you are! It's. Not. Fair!"

Ino reached over to hold Hinata's hand. Hinata wasn't even close to breaking down to tears. Instead Ino was worried that Hinata was about to kill Sasuke.

'_Wouldn't that be a sight to remember? Ha!'_ Ino thought with dark humor.

"Huh. Never thought of it that way." Shikamaru said as if he were commenting on the weather. "I guess there are some things worse than death. And it's been three months already. Must suck for her if she's still alive."

"SHUT UP!" both Naruto and Sasuke yelled.

"Ino!" Hinata whispered.

"What is it?" Ino whispered back.

"Look, Sasuke's crying!" she said quietly.

"Ehhhhh?" Ino glanced at Sasuke, and saw something glint on his face when the fire flared up. "Well I'll be damned…"

Sasuke glared at Shikamaru, then at Neji. "You all sicken me." He spat.

"This is touching." Ino said sarcastically.

"Be quiet, Ino!" Sasuke said in a voice that made her snap her mouth close. Oh he was pissed now.

"What was this last clue Sakura sent?" he asked Hinata.

Hinata straightened herself up. "That's classified."

"Screw classified!" Sasuke yelled at her, making her instinctively cringe. "Where did she say they were taking her?"

"I'll t-tell you if you come with us without a fight." Hinata said, her voice shaky.

'_Well look who's suddenly the negotiator!'_ Ino smiled at Hinata.

Sasuke ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "Fine…" he muttered. The eyes of those in team Hebi bugged out as they stared at their leader. Watching Sasuke get emotional was historical enough, but now he was going to sacrifice himself for knowledge about a girl!

"What's that? I don't think my friend here heard you." Ino mocked. "Speak up, Uchiha."

"I said 'fine'!" he yelled.

"I'll tell you once we are well on our way to Konoha." Hinata said, obviously shaken that he had agreed so quickly.

Naruto stared at Sasuke.

"How do we know you'll keep your word?" Shikamaru asked with a yawn. Shikamaru's uncaring attitude seemed to really be getting on Sasuke's nerves tonight. Sasuke glared at him.

"I promise not to run off once you tell me the clue." He said. "And I promise to come with you without a fight."

"That's not much to go on." Neji pointed out.

"I never break a promise." Sasuke snapped.

"Sure you do." Ino piped. "But now isn't the time to dwell on that. I'm tired and I'd like some sleep before we leave in the morning."

Sasuke's team was already walking back to their camp.

"Before going to Konoha though…" Sasuke said. Everyone looked at him. "I want you to take me to the last place you were searching for Sakura. And I want us to try and find her."

Now Ino was pissed. She stalked over to Sasuke so fast that no one had time to react as she fixed him with an icy blue glare and stopped inches from his face.

"_Since when do you care about Sakura_?" she yelled at him. "She never meant anything to you! And for your information, Sakura has lived almost four years now without you! And guess what? She's been happy! And when have _you_ ever made her happy?"

"Ino…" Naruto reached out for her but she slapped his hand away.

"Don't go pretending that you care, Uchiha." She hissed. "Sakura is better off without you giving her false hopes and then ripping them away from her for kicks! I bet you think it's so funny! Sweet, gullible Sakura; fall for anything!"

"Ino!" Shikamaru put a hand to his forehead. "Troublesome woman!"

"But she's your troublesome woman." Neji said. "I'm not suicidal enough to go try and stop that. Shikamaru, this is you problem."

"Thanks." Shikamaru grumbled.

"No." Hinata told them. "Let her speak."

Shikamaru, Neji, and Naruto stared at Hinata, and then backed away form Ino. They weren't going to get themselves killed if they could help it. If worst came to worst, they could blame Hinata.

"I don't think it's funny!" Sasuke protested furiously.

"Oh so I guess this is just a measure of yourself? See how many times you can hurt a girl before she realizes that she should just stay away?" Ino snapped. "If Sakura means nothing to you, Sasuke, then don't go trying to help her."

And with that Ino spun on her heel and walked away, her ponytail whipping Sasuke in the face. She walked back to Hinata and winked. Ino always felt happiest after she's thoroughly chewed someone up and spit them out.

Sasuke turned around to follow his teammates. "I'll meet you all here tomorrow morning." He said over his shoulder, then walked into the woods. No one saw him angrily wipe his cheek as he disappeared into the night.

Hinata slumped against Neji.

"You did great tonight." He told her.

"I… I think I've used up the rest of my courage for the year." She mumbled.

Neji laughed softly. "You earned it. Now let's get some sleep."

Everyone agreed lay down to get some rest. Except Naruto, who called first watch. Naruto stared at the stars, wondering if Sakura was looking at the same stars.

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><p><strong>Sasuke's back! *gasp* And he seems to be- *gasp* -<strong>_**worried**_** about Sakura!**

**Sasuke: "Psh, Uchihas are never worried.**

**Me: Hush, this is my section.**

**Anyways, for all you Ino fans out there, I hoped you enjoyed her rant at Sasuke! And for those Hidan X Sakura fans out there, there's going to be a little scene for y'all coming up. Nothing serious, but cute ^^**

**So keep reading everyone!**


	5. Chapter 5

**DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN NARUTO**

**So this chapter was too long so I cut it in half. For my HidaSaku fans, I'm sorry I couldn't fit in the HidaSaku scene, BUT I PROMISE TO PUT IT IN THE NEXT CHAPTER. PROMISE!**

**Update:**** I HAVE CHANGED SOME THINGS IN THE STORY. (Mainly in chapters 2 and 3)**

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><p><em><span>Chapter Five: Investigation<span>_

The rest of the Akatsuki who were currently staying at the base came down. Tobi squealed at the sight of the waffles and was nearly stabbed when he tried to take Hidan's waffles. Zetsu accepted his without a word while Kakuzu shocked Sakura with a 'thank you'. Sakura finally made herself some waffles and leaned against the counter eating while she watched the Akatsuki members eat their breakfast.

It was strange how the criminal organization acted like a crazy bloodthirsty extended family. Syrup was fought over with threats of explosives, religious sacrifices, and gigantic swords, while second helpings were determined by who could knock out the most competition. Sakura just watched with her mouth hanging open and almost burned a few waffles watching the Akatsuki members spar over the waffles.

Eventually it was clear that Itachi was the best at the breakfast fighting (he helped Sasori and Deidara defeat Hidan and Kakuzu), so he was given first pick at seconds. Then it was Sasori (who was controlling Zetsu and Hidan with his puppet strings) then it was Deidara (who attached Kakuzu with his explosives while Kakuzu was caught in Itachi's genjutsu), and finally Kisame (who just plain kicked Tobi's ass).

"Sakura," Itachi asked politely, "would you deliver the second helpings to the table now?"

Sakura nodded dumbly, and moved to cautiously place the seconds on the table, then quickly stepped back as the victorious half of the Akatsuki picked their share. When they were done, they let the losing half of the Akatsuki pick what was left. Hidan was swearing nonstop at Sasori, Tobi was begging forgiveness from Kisame, and Zetsu and Kakuzu were grumbling angrily at Itachi, Sasori, and Deidara altogether. Deidara just grinned.

"I swear you guys are the most dysfunctional family in history!" Sakura exclaimed as she made herself one more waffle and sat between Sasori and Itachi.

"You're probably right." Tobi said happily, finally leaving Kisame alone after the shark man hit him over the head a couple times.

"It's scary." She said.

"Not as scary as Hidan after his Pocky is stolen." Kisame joked. The big blue man was eating four waffles and not slowing down!

"When I find out who did it, I will sacrifice them to Jashin-sama!" Hidan said as he angrily stabbed at his two waffles.

"Well while you're plotting your revenge, stop abusing the dinnerware." Sakura chided him.

"Shut up." Hidan retorted.

"Hey, don't sass Sakura." Kakuzu commanded.

Sakura stared. Had he just stood up for her? Now the friendliness between her and the Akatsuki was really worrisome. Never mind that she had slept with Sasori, Kakuzu was actually standing up for her! Would miracles never cease?

"So did you like your book?" Itachi asked Sakura while the others chatted and argued and threatened and plotted.

"Um, yeah!" Sakura said with a smile. She had actually completely forgotten about it. A little too busy with Sasori.

"Good. Don't read it too fast. I won't be able to go buy you more books until Kisame and I finish our next mission." Itachi said, his face as blank as ever. But his voice was brotherly.

"Another mission?" she asked.

Itachi tsked. "I can't tell you about them, Sakura."

"Oh yeah. Of course." She said. Sakura bit her lip, remembering that these men were criminals.

Itachi patted her head as he stood up. "Kisame, we should get going."

Kisame nodded and stood up. "Try out some more of those recipes for me, Sakura, and tell me how they turn out, ok?"

She nodded with a weak smile. These men may be going to kill one of her friends. Or one of her friends may just kill them. They could be infiltrating the Leaf village and injure Tsunade or Shizune or Kakashi.

Sakura shook her head. These thoughts would get her no where. She looked back up at the rest of the Akatsuki at the table. Deidara was cracking jokes at Hidan's expense, pissing off Hidan and making everyone else laugh. Sakura glanced at Sasori.

An amused smile touched his face, but he still had that guarded expression. It occurred to Sakura that he didn't trust his comrades. Sakura felt sorry for him and the other members of the Akatsuki. They were criminals. Bad people.

'That's why don't betray my village.' She thought. 'I get to trust my comrades.'

Tobi and Zetsu eventually went to go spy on some village and Hidan and Kakuzu were off to assassinate some warlord Sakura had never heard of. Deidara left, saying he was running out of his special clay, and went to go get some more. Sakura was left with Sasori.

Sasori and Sakura sat on the couch, her nestled in his arms, leaning her head on his chest.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

The next morning the group was packed and ready to go when Sasuke came into the clearing to join them.

"Where's your team?" Shikamaru asked him.

"They'll be staying." Sasuke answered. "They don't approve of my deal."

Shikamaru shrugged. At least they wouldn't have to deal with the others. "Okay then, let's move out everyone." He said.

Naruto fell into step beside Sasuke as the two of them walked in the back. Shikamaru and Neji led the way without a word, with Ino and Hinata speaking in hushed tones in the middle. Feeling the sense of urgency Sasuke and Naruto were giving off, Shikamaru and Neji began to run quickly, setting a fast pace towards the place where Sakura had gone missing.

"So tell me everything about how Sakura was captured." Sasuke said to Naruto as they were moving.

Naruto looked at the sky for a moment before replying. "We were helping the Sand village against two Akatsuki members. Deidara and Sasori. Deidara fought with explosive at medium range, while Sasori was a puppet master fighting at long range. I went to fight Deidara, with Kakashi trailing behind me. Sakura stayed behind to help Elder Chiyo defeat Sasori."

"Why did you leave Sakura with only an old woman to protect her?" Sasuke asked him.

"Deidara… Deidara made me lose my temper. And I left to fight him without thinking…" Naruto admitted.

Sasuke sighed. "You are always losing your temper."

"Kakashi was the first one to notice that the explosions coming from the place where Sakura was fighting Sasori had stopped. Deidara escaped us then, and we had to turn back." Naruto continued. "When we got to where Sakura had been fighting, all that we could find were dozens of smashed puppets and Elder Chiyo's body. Sakura was gone without a trace."

Sasuke clenched his hands.

"There was something strange though." Naruto realized, thinking back to the battlefield. "There was evidence of some kind of ritual. Sakura's doing though, not any of the Akatsuki. There was a pentagram and a lot of symbols carved hastily into the rock and painted with blood. Sakura's blood, if I'm right."

Sasuke's hands clenched tighter. "You're a fool. You should have been there to help her."

"But I wasn't, Sasuke." Naruto said sadly.

The group spent four days traveling to Nako. On the fifth day they had reached the village Sakura had sent her last message from. It was now past three months that she had gone missing.

"Now what was the last clue Sakura had given you all?" Sasuke turned to Hinata.

"O-oh. U-um…" Hinata began to stutter.

"She said their base was about two weeks away from this village. She thought they were heading east but she wasn't sure." Ino answered for Hinata.

Sasuke nodded and faced east. "Naruto, describe Sasori and Deidara."

"Deidara had dark blonde hair with half of it in a ponytail and much of it falling to block his face, blue eyes, and something like an eye patch obscured his left eye." Naruto remembered that Akatsuki very well. "Um… Sasori… I didn't see him. He was hiding in his puppet. But both Akatsuki members were wearing their cloaks. Their cloaks would have been in bad shape after the battles."

Sasuke nodded. "We need to go to all the inns in the village."

"Why?" Naruto asked, confused.

Shikamaru slapped his forehead. "Of course! Gods, why didn't we think of that?"

"Because men never ask for help." Ino rolled her eyes. "Oh wait! I remember when we were investigating in Nako back when we were still searching for Sakura there!"

"And?" everyone asked.

"There was an innkeeper with his inn at the edge of the village. He said that there was this big arrest that happened. Apparently some nobleman recognized a friend of his and rescued her from some thugs. But then the thugs broke out and kidnapped the girl again and left town." Ino shook her head. "But at the time everyone was telling different versions of the story that none of us could make out what was true or not. Ugh, if only I'd known!"

"Then we need to ask all the inns here if they can remember serving three people, a group with two men and a girl." Sasuke said.

"One of the men was blonde and a pink haired girl, and one other unknown man. That's not very helpful, but I guess it's all we've got." Neji sighed.

Shikamaru nodded. "Hinata, Neji, you two take the north/west edge of town, Ino and I will take the south/west edge, and Naruto and Sasuke will take the east. Let's move!"

They spent all day asking the innkeepers of various inns about the Akatsuki members or their captive, but no one seemed to remember anything. Finally Sasuke and Naruto met Ino, Shikamaru, Neji, and Hinata outside the last inn they needed to check. The inn was well established, and didn't seem like a place or the Akatsuki to stay at or to hold a captive without being suspicious.

"I remember a group of three coming through here about three months ago." Said the innkeeper. "How can someone forget? Those men were scary, but at least they paid well. Who could forget those cold eyes of theirs? Anyway, they had a girl with them, but she wasn't tied up or anything. In fact she stayed in a room with the redheaded guy."

"There was a redhead guy?" Naruto asked.

"Oh yeah. He seemed to be the one in charge. He was always arguing with that pink haired girl. Poor kids, no way that relationship was going to last another week." The innkeeper shook his head.

"You think they had a relationship?" Ino asked surprised.

"I… Well I just assumed." The innkeeper shrugged. "I mean they were staying in the same room. And the guy never took his eyes off her. It was funny watching them both boss around that poor blonde guy."

"Concentrate." Sasuke interrupted. "What did the girl look like?"

The innkeeper blinked. "Oh, well she was a pretty young thing. Shorter than the men she was with. Pink hair, green eyes, and a stubborn look about her."

"That's Sakura!" Hinata exclaimed. "It has to be!"

"What did the men with her look like?" Sasuke continued.

"Well the blonde guy was pretty weird. He had some kind of eye patch and on him and favored his right arm."

"That's definitely Deidara." Naruto said. "I broke his right arm."  
>"And then there was this redhead guy with the coldest look I've ever seen. Scary man." The innkeeper nodded.<p>

"That must be what Sasori really looks like." Shikamaru wondered.

"The redhead guy was the tallest of the three. Both of the men were wearing the cloaks y'all described." The innkeeper said, holding out his hand.

Shikamaru scowled at the innkeeper but paid him for the information.

"Good doing business with ya." The innkeeper dipped his head and went back to work.

"Why would Sakura be sleeping in a room with on of the Akatsuki?" Hinata asked.

"Well they aren't going to leave her alone long enough for her to escape." Neji said logically. "But I'm wondering why she wasn't tied up."

"It's a little suspicious for two men two walk into an inn with a girl tied up." Ino pointed out.

"But why didn't she escape then?" Neji replied.

"They must have had something to hold her back. Something they used to control her." Sasuke said.

"I wonder what that was." Hinata said.

"Whatever it was, it must not have been very pleasant." Ino said. Hinata agreed.

"But at least now we know she was here." Naruto said.

Sasuke was quiet. "How far will a two weeks' walk take us form here? Of even a two weeks' run?"

Shikamaru calculated in his head. "At most, probably 168 miles."

Sasuke thought for a moment. "So we need to search a 168 mile radius around the village, concentrating in the east direction."

"Sounds good." Shikamaru said.

"Not really." Ino stared at Shikamaru. "That's going to take a very long time to cover all that land."

"We'll take all the time we need." Sasuke said. "The Akatsuki base won't be going anywhere. We just need to keep a low profile and not attract attention to ourselves. If the Akatsuki don't find out we are here, we have a better chance of finding Sakura."

"Be on the look out for any more clues she may have left us." Ino said. "They'll be old by now, but you never know."

Shikamaru sighed. "This is more work than I thought this mission would be… Anyway, here are the groups: Neji and I will search the north, Ino and Hinata the south, and Sasuke and Naruto will take the east."

Everyone nodded.

Shikamaru continued. "Sasuke, Hinata and Neji, use your Byakugan, or in Sasuke's case, your Sharingan, to scan for any signs of chakra."

"Got it." They answered.

"Let's meet back at this inn when the sun begins to set. Remember, there's a lot of ground to cover, so don't expect to find anything too fast. Don't go too far today, meet back at this inn when it starts getting dark. We will be in the same teams tomorrow when we continue our search." Shikamaru ordered. "Now get started."

Everyone headed out in the directions they were appointed. They would mark where they searched with small carvings in the bark that no one would see unless you knew what you were looking for. Due to the sheer amount of land they had to search, and in order to be thorough, the search was agonizingly slow. It took two days for them to reach the edge of the radius while running at top speed. As was expected, no one found anything the first search. Or the second search. Or the third search.

But on the fourth search, Naruto and Sasuke had gone farther than they ever had into the forest, coming to the edge of the radius. Naruto and Sasuke both had impossible amounts of chakra and endurance, so they were able to cover more ground in a shorter amount of time. The two were about to turn back when something caught Sasuke's eye.

"Sasuke? Did you see something?" Naruto turned to look at Sasuke, who had gone still.

"Something… flashed." Sasuke replied. "Like, metal reflecting light… there!"

Both men looked into a tree where there was a small light reflecting through the leaves. Sasuke walked over to the tree and pushed away the leaves. Something was under the moss that had gathered in the crook of the branch.

"There's something here…" Sasuke reached up to brush away the moss. The moss fell into his face and he turned his face and stepped back.

"Hey, it fell on the ground…" Naruto trailed off as he stared at the headband on the ground. "By the gods… It's a ninja headband! And it's Konoha's!"

Sasuke picked up the headband. "It looks like it's been here for years…"

"It has to be Sakura's, right?" Naruto said hopefully.

"I can't tell. Let's go back to the others and show them." Sasuke said as they turned to walk back to the village.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"Well, now that we're alone…" Sasori's lips brushed Sakura's neck, making her shivered. He smirked. How he loved her reactions to him.

"Hm. How ever will we occupy ourselves?" she pursed her lips as she ran a hand down his chest.

Sasori caught her hand and wrapped his fingers around it. Standing, he dragged her back up the stairs. She laughed; it was beautiful and sultry. This girl was forbidden fruit. And she was delicious.

They went into his room this time. Sakura stopped once inside to stare around her. Her eyes roamed over the walls, going wide. Sasori couldn't stop marveling at how green they were. Bright emeralds.

He looked around as well, trying to see what she was seeing. Drawings of the body systems were posted on the walls above his desk where there were various puppets parts and designs. He saw Sakura wrinkle her nose at the puppet parts. The parts never bothered him, but he guessed that it would be slightly creepy to outsiders.

The desk itself was pretty messy today. Normally Sasori kept everything in rigid order, never leaving anything out of place. Puppet tools weren't in their proper places, but other than the puppet parts, everything else was in its place.

Sakura sucked in a breath. Sasori followed her gaze to a sword that leaned against the wall in the back corner of the room. The sword that had stabbed her during their initial battle. Sasori went still and looked at Sakura, but she turned and shook her head.

"I'm fine." She smiled. "It doesn't bother me."

Her attention drifted to a table sitting across the room from the desk was covered in formula sheets and looked like a home lab. Substances and venoms sat in neat rows, studiously labeled. They were even color coordinated for how toxic they were and their side affects. Sakura smirked, and Sasori was sure she was thinking of how it had taken him years to perfect his deadly poison and she made the antidote to it in less than three days.

Sasori reached his hand out and placed his hand on her cheek, turning her face to look at him. "You're looking the wrong way." He said softly.

"I'm guessing you've been working on a new poison?" she asked him with a smug smile.

He shrugged in acknowledgment.

"You are then!" she clapped her hands. "Well, when you're finished, let me try to make an antidote!"

Sasori fixed an eye on her. "The point of me making a poison is so that its intended target can _not_ be saved."

"It's just something to keep me occupied." She pouted. "And besides, I find it fun. Challenging."

Sasori shook his head. "Only a medical ninja would find such tedious work 'fun'." He muttered.

"Medical ninja through and through." She shrugged.

Her head turned back to stare at the rest of his room, which was rather drab. The only thing that really expressed anything that was Sasori was the new bed. He had had to get a new one since he now had a body that got uncomfortable. Sasori hadn't realized with his puppet body how lacking his last so-called bed was. Then again, as a puppet he hadn't needed to sleep.

"Nice bed." She said seductively. "Is it new? We better break it in."

"I agree completely." He replied with a slow smirk and pulled her towards him. Sakura frowned. "What?" Sasori asked her.

"No smirking while we are doing this." She scolded half-heartedly.

That only made Sasori smirk more. "I'll see what I can do."

She huffed but placed a kiss on him. "You're so stubborn."

"And impatient." He added, just as he began to quickly remove her clothes. Sakura let him, and when he was done, she began to remove his clothes, but more slowly, patiently unbuttoning each button and slowly unzipping his pants. Sasori ground his teeth trying to be patient. Infuriating woman.

Then she slid his pants down, keeping eye contact with him as she knelt to bring it to his feet. As she stood back up her fingers trailed up his body, stopping when she had straightened and lingering on his chest. Sasori stared at her, in nothing but her under clothes. He could tell she was fighting a smile, a lusty look in her eyes, gleaming as she took in his body. When her lips finally twitched in a smile, his arms snatched her and crushed her against him.

"Damn you, Sakura." He murmured, first kissing her then trailing his lips down her neck. "Damn you for coming along and changing me into this maddened creature that can't go two seconds without thinking about you, and all I want to do to you."

She shivered. "And what do you want to do to me?"

"Let me show you." He chuckled evilly, and he didn't have to look at her face to know that she was smiling just as he was.

His smooth hands ran down her sides, and Sasori watched Sakura lean her head back with pleasure. As she did so he sucked hard on her neck, making her gasped. How he loved to hear that sound.

Suddenly her hands grasped his hair and pulled his head back as she kissed him roughly on the lips. Sasori tried to deepen the kiss but she pulled away with a teasing smile. To show his displeasure, Sasori bit her lip. That only made his lover smile wider, with her lips still shut tight.

Her hands ran possessively up his back, not gentle or lovingly, but pressing into his flesh and kneading his muscles. Sasori had never known a woman so dominating. He liked it.

His hand sneaked between their bodies and he pressed seductively at her lower stomach, his thumb stroking down, but not quite touching where he knew she wanted him to. Her lids lowered and her lips parted. She hummed with frustrated pleasure.

"You like that, Sakura?" he whispered into her ear.

"Very much, Sasori." She said softly.

It had turned into a game. Each person pleasuring the other while not going all the way. Taking the other to the edge but not pushing them too far. It was a power struggle, but it was an entertaining one.

Suddenly Sakura grabbed his butt, and Sasori stared at her in surprise.

She smirked. "Oh yeah. I just did that."

"We have a winner…" he murmured as he crouched down to caress her leg. Sakura remained standing and watched him. Sasori slid his hand up and around her leg, and he could tell she was struggling to keep standing. Swirling his finger behind her knee, he asked her if she was weak at the knees yet. Sakura just bit her lip; the answer he was looking for.

Sasori's hands moved up behind her thighs, and he just caressed them for a couple seconds, watching the concentration on her face. Technically, he was now the winner. Now Sasori wasn't a patient man, but he was starting to appreciate taking the time to tease his lover. Just her facial expressions were enough to make it worth it.

Sasori leaned forward and he heard her intake a quick breath. His lips kissed her just above the knee, and he trailed them lightly up her thigh, and kissing her hip when he reached it. She rewarded him by weaving her fingers in his hair and gasping. That lovely sound.

By now he could feel her legs pressing into his hands as she tried to stay standing, but the trembling in her muscles told Sasori how hard it was for her. Sakura let out a soft moan as he repeated the action to her other leg. He knew where she really wanted his mouth to go. And just to tease her, he kissed right under her belly button, just above the panty line. He sucked lightly, and she moaned loudly.

He stood up to catch her just as her legs gave out, pulling her body back up and against his body.

"That was amazing, Sasori!" she gasped.

Sasori was surprised to feel happiness at the remark. True happiness. He supported her weakened body with his arms, pressing her body against his.

"I think you're the real winner of this round." She panted.

Sakura was about to say something else when Sasori silenced her with a gentle kiss. And he was pretty sure it was the first time he had ever given her one. When he pulled back, he saw her eyes wide in surprise and her lips parted sweetly. Then her eyes softened in a gaze that made his heart flutter- yes his heart was actually fluttering- and she kissed him back.

The second gentle kiss that she gave him was an acknowledgment. A message had passed between them as they seemed to reach a new level of understanding. Sasori was too enraptured by Sakura right now, and would decipher it later, but he felt a change inside him.

Her hands were roaming his body, her thumbs making circles as they worked their way up his chest, only to fall to his hips and grip them and pull them against her. They kissed again, and this time the passion flowed freely, their tongues dueling for supremacy. Sakura moaned into his mouth, and Sasori returned one to her.

His hands skimmed her back, feeling the smooth skin underneath. Her lips now skimmed his jaw, the simple move driving him wild. She sucked on his ear as his tongue darted out to taste her neck. Bending his head down so she could access his ear better, Sasori placed his lips on the curve where her shoulder met her neck.

Breathing in her scent, he exhaled, his warm breath touching her skin. She shuddered and whimpered right into his ear. His hands moved to massage her front and she pressed against him. Sakura moaned loudly when he ducked his head and kissed her right on her sternum.

"Lower…" she breathed.

"Not yet, my lady." He chuckled.

"Now I'm the impatient one." She chuckled just as she gasped and moaned again as Sasori pressed his finger just under her breast and stroked downward very quickly. He smiled. Her leg rubbed against his, seductive and begging.

"Fine, I guess we can remove the last layers now…" he relented. She smiled broadly and took off her under clothes just as he did.

"Bed. Now." She commanded with a smile.

"Patience is a virtue." He said crossing his arms.

Sakura was already lying on his bed. Her hand pressed against her flat stomach and ever so slowly moved downwards. Sasori's eyes widened. This woman was torturing him now.

"Never mind. Screw patience." He said as he crossed over to the bed and laid on top of her, kissing her neck.

"No." she said sternly. He looked into her eyes, that wonderful fire lighting them up. "Screw me." Her voice was low, husky, and lustful.

"I am at your command." He said solemnly, and then flashed her a smirk and ran his lips from her collarbone down to her belly button. Sakura rewarded Sasori with whimpers and moans. Her hand was pushing his head lower, but he raised his head and sucked on her fingers. More moans.

Her legs wrapped around his torso. Hands cupping his face and making him look up to her. Sakura curled her body up and stroked his jaw with her fingers. The index finger reached down and trailed up his neck.

"Come back up here." She whispered.

Sasori crawled back up the bed, and leaned over her. "Yes?"

"Kiss me."

"Gladly."

Somehow she was on top of him now. Both of them were moaning and groaning. Sakura teased and pushed him, but never all the way. Sasori returned the treatment to her. He wasn't sure who was controlling who now. Maybe they had both given in.

"Sasori…" she sighed.

His name on her lips brought that flutter back to his heart. Sasori stopped and leaned over her body again, taking in her body. She stared back up at him, her hands still roaming up his arms and over his shoulders and messing his hair. Happiness emanated from her body. She was happy with him. The thought brought a genuine smile to his face.

"Sakura…" he murmured against her flesh. Something in the way that he said her name made her arch and moan. Sasori chuckled and stroked her back as she arched.

"Now, Sasori. I need you."

"Happy to oblige." He laughed darkly and ran his teeth across her stomach and made her cry out.

"Sasori…" she panted.

"I love it when you say that." He said softly and calmly as he roughly stroked her body, making her squirm with delight. Sakura clutched the sheets. When she moaned again Sasori came up and captured them with his lips.

Grasping his face, she pressed herself into him, swaying her hips suggestively underneath him. Sasori had never been so aroused in his entire life. He wanted to end it, sate the need within him, and yet he still wanted to draw this moment out, to make it last. He pressed back against her, and she whimpered into his mouth.

He loved this. The little noises, her gasps and whimpers especially, making him hunger for more. He wanted to strain her, her evident need for him pleasuring that predatory side of him. Grazing his hand along her thigh as her legs gripped him, he nipped her lip. He had power over this woman.

Sakura sat up a little and leaned into their kiss. As she ran the heel of her palm down his spine while her other hand gripped his hair and pulled him into her, the two actions of her hands driving all thoughts from his mind for a moment. Sasori reviewed his previous thoughts and corrected them. He had power over her, but then she had the same power over him. It was a luxurious and arousing power struggle.

"Now, Sasori. I'm getting impatient." She panted as she licked his ear and then down his neck, her hands clutching him. It sent arousal zinging through his body. Sasori grabbed Sakura and pushed her down. She laughed aloud at his sudden impatience. Damn woman had too much power over him. And Sasori was enjoying it. Damn, wonderful woman.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Everyone stared at the headband on the table. They had rented three rooms at the inn, one for the girls and two for the boys. Naruto and Sasuke's room seemed to have become the designated headquarters for them.

"I have no doubt it is Sakura's." Ino announced.

"And how do you know?" Neji asked.

"I just do." Ino crossed her arms stubbornly. Shikamaru sighed.

"I think it's Sakura's headband as well." Hinata said softly. "It has to be."

"For now, let's assume it belonged to Sakura." Sasuke interrupted. "We should concentrate our search in the area where it was found. I doubt she would have had a chance to place it on the tree unless something was distracting her captors. So, what could it be?"

"Their base." Naruto answered. "So their base must be close to the location."

Sasuke nodded. "Tomorrow we will head back there then."

"Surely they'll see us coming if we just waltz up to their front door." Neji said. "I know we are all eager to rescue Sakura now that we finally have a clue, but we must treat this like any other mission. And that means we need to do some observation."

Everyone but Naruto and Sasuke nodded.

"There isn't time!" Naruto burst.

"Naruto." Neji looked him in the eye. "Sakura has been there for three months now, that is, _if she is still alive_. A few more days won't make a terrible difference, _if she is still alive_."

"She's alive!" Naruto interrupted, and surprisingly, Sasuke looked like he had been about to say the same thing.

Neji glared but continued as if he hadn't said anything. "But if we go in there without any preparation, there is a very high risk of us dying. And _if Sakura is dead_, then we get ourselves killed for nothing. Or _if she is still alive_, then we die rescuing her and her only chance for escape dies with us."

Everyone was silent, Naruto trembling with rage. Everyone knew Neji was right, but that didn't make them feel any better about it. Neji stared at them with his blank face.

"Fine." Naruto consented. "How long do you suggest we stake this out?"

"You're not going to like my honest answer, Naruto." Neji said. "Considering who we are dealing with, their past actions, and what's at stake…"

"Just answer the damned question." Sasuke snapped.

Neji took a moment to look each person there in the eye. "One week. Preferably two."

"What?" Naruto, Sasuke, and Ino jumped up. Hinata stared at Neji, horrified.

"Hell no!" Naruto yelled.

"Do you have any idea what they could do to her in just a week, let alone two?" Sasuke growled.

"Sakura needs us _now_, Neji!" Ino tried to reason. "Don't you think she's spent enough time there already?"

"Neji's right." Shikamaru said calmly.

They went silent and everyone looked at him.

"I agree fully on everything Neji has said." Shikamaru said. "We can't be reckless with this mission. It's not even a sanctioned mission. If this goes bad, we die, the Akatsuki will just move Sakura to location, or kill her, and those of us who survive will be severely punished by the Hokage. If we mess up the only chance we may ever get to rescue Sakura, Tsunade won't just strip us of our ninja ranks, she'll have us drawn and quartered."

Ino and Hinata winced. Naruto shut his mouth. Tsunade would do that and worse to them when Sakura's safety was at stake.

"Then how long do we wait?" Hinata ventured to ask softly.

Shikamaru calculated something in his head then turned to Neji. "Two weeks. And don't protest against this decision! I make this decision for the safety of Sakura, and of the team. Now, Neji will be in charge of planning the observation. You will all do as he says."

Those who had jumped up sat back down. Naruto was restless and trying to keep from bursting out and yelling at Shikamaru and Neji. Sasuke was angry that they were wasting time. Ino kept glancing at Hinata, both worried about Sakura.

"Now listen." Neji said. "Sasuke will take me to the place where you found this headband tomorrow in the morning. Remember, we don't have confirmation that it's Sakura's. After I have scouted and mapped the area, we are going to watch it in rounds. Which means we should set up a camp that's far enough away to go unnoticed. If everything goes smoothly, we may not have to observe more than a week and three days. Of course if things go _too_ smoothly, we'll have to extend the observation time. Everything now depends on circumstance."

"What are we going to do about the Akatsuki?" Ino asked.

Neji shrugged. "I don't know yet."

Hinata glanced down at her bracelet and twirled it, mirroring the action Ino was constantly doing across from her. She sighed. _'Oh Sakura… I hope you're okay.'_

* * *

><p><strong>My HidaSaku fans I promise the cute HidaSaku scene will be in the next chapter. And if you want a clue... "Casseroles".<strong>

**There's your clue *evil laugh* Anyway, I have to admit I have actually never eaten a casserole before... lol I had to ask what a casserole exactly was for that scene. Silly me. REVIEWS PLEASE~**


	6. Chapter 6

**DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN NARUTO**

**Okay everyone, I have edited Chapters 1-5. Thanks you to the reviews! They help me catch a few things. So in case you have yet to realize it, I have added some things in Chapters 2 and 3, so people might want to go back a read those chapters (some important information was accidentally deleted in those chapters).**

**Enjoy Chapter 6! (HidaSaku fans will love this one)**

* * *

><p><em><span>Chapter Six: The Punishment... Casseroles!<span>_

After they had sated themselves, Sakura and Sasori spent the rest of the afternoon lying together in bed. They didn't talk much, just laid there and faced each other, their foreheads pressed against each other. Both were awake, but the silence was comfortable. Each partner listened to the other breathe, deep and even, the content mood surrounding them.

Finally the silence was broken by a sound downstairs. Tobi and Zetsu had returned, from the sound of Tobi calling for Sakura. The moment between the lovers was shattered.

"Shit!" Sakura said as she and Sasori lurched out of bed and quickly dressed. Sasori didn't say anything, but Sakura could feel the anger coming of him in waves.

"That loud bastard, I'm gonna kill 'im!" Sasori growled quietly, although Sakura heard him.

"You go out first." She said to him. "Go downstairs and stall him. They won't notice you with sex hair, but they'll definitely notice me with it. And Zetsu would figure it out quickly enough!"

Sasori nodded and left the room just as she finished speaking. Sakura waited a moment to hear his footsteps fade, and listened to see if anyone was near the room. When she knew all was clear, she snuck back to her room and found her full length mirror. Straightening the clothes where they were needed, Sakura quickly brushed out her hair and washed her face. It was a good thing her shirt had a collar!

"SAKURA!" She heard Tobi cry from downstairs sounding very scared. Sakura sighed. What was his problem- Oh shit. Sakura remembered Sasori had wanted to kill him for interrupting them. He hadn't been serious... right? Crap.

Sakura ran downstairs and found Sasori holding Tobi in the thrall of his puppet strings, making the masked man contort his body into the most painful positions. She gasped. Tobi screamed. Zetsu watched, bored.

"Sasori, what are you doing?" she cried.

"Please, Sasori-sama, Tobi is a good boy!" Tobi cried, very distressed. "What has Tobi done?"

"You woke me up from a very good nap, baka." Sasori said with a calm face, but his eyes showed anger. "And I am very grumpy when I'm rudely awakened by some fool's insistent yelling…"

'Good lie.' Sakura thought. "Sasori, put him down."

"Hmph, Sasori is always grumpy." Zetsu said. Sasori glared.

"You aren't helping, Zetsu." Sakura said.

"Sorry, Sakura-san." Zetsu's good half said solemnly.

"Just saying." Zetsu's bad half said.

Sakura sighed. "Would you two just go save Tobi already?"

"Yes, Sakura-san." They answered and Zetsu went over to Tobi and smacked him in the head. Sakura walked over to Sasori and hit his arm, scolding him. Sasori reluctantly released Tobi. Zetsu held Tobi to keep the man from falling down after the strings were cut.

"What was that for, Zetsu-sempai?" Tobi cried, rubbing the back of his head.

"For starting this mess." Zetsu stated.

Tobi pouted, but immediately brightened up when his attention returned to Sakura. "My savior!" he launched himself at her.

Sakura wasn't quick enough to dodge him, and was smothered in his bear hug. Tobi kept babbling about how she was so nice to save him from the big meanie (Sasori), not noticing her turning blue. Finally she managed to push him away.

"Let me breathe, sheesh!" Sakura said.

"Tobi is sorry, Sakura-chan."

Her thoughts slid to a halt. Tobi had called her 'Sakura-_chan_.'

'_Well well well, someone is becoming a member of the Akatsuki family.' Her Inner self mocked. 'All you need to do now is kill some Leaf ninja, turn your back on your village, and you're home free to join the Akatsuki. They would surely be happy to have you.'_

'Shut up.' Sakura thought, but it was a weak protest.

'_What? Do you actually want to stay here with them?' her Inner Sakura asked sarcastically._

Sakura didn't have a reply.

'_Wait, you can't actually be contemplating that question?' her Inner shrieked._ _'Oh dear, Sakura don't go there! Don't even go there! You know where you belong!'_

'Do I?' Sakura thought back. 'The way I feel about Sasori… I can see it in his eyes that he feels the same way I do. If I feel this strongly for a guy, shouldn't I stay with him, no matter what? No matter whose side I end up on?'

'_Girl stop right now.' Inner Sakura said sadly. 'Think of the others. Lady Tsunade, Ino, Hinata, Lee, and even Neji! Naruto above all! Are they worth one man? This man has killed your fellow shinobi without once regretting it!'_

'I can't just make myself stop having these feelings!' Sakura wailed inside.

'_I know...' Her Inner self sympathized. 'I know… But you can't hold off this choice forever. You will have to choose someday. And I suspect you choose the side that has and always will be there for you. Ask yourself this: If Sasori had to choose between you and the Akatsuki, who would he choose?'_

Sakura honestly couldn't answer.

'_Exactly.' Her Inner self said. 'It will be hard, but you had a life before Sasori, and you can still have one after him.'_

'It will be a half life. Everyday would be torture…' she thought.

'_That may be. But don't throw it all away just because of your infatuation.'_

"Sakura?" Sasori placed his hand on her shoulder.

Sakura jolted out of her reverie. The traces of sadness were quickly erased from her features. She smiled apologetically.

"You've been spacing for a while." Sasori said softly. "Are you… okay?"

Sakura stared at him. Compared to the Sasori she had first met, this one was so different. When the other members of the Akatsuki were around, his face and body language was as impassive and slightly bored as ever. But now she noticed that his sharp features would soften when he looked at her, and a smile would hint on his lips and in his eyes. She could see his usual wall come down, just for her. Was it love? It was too soon to say. But it was something.

"I'm fine." She smiled. _As long as you're here. As long as you stay. With me._

But by the gods how she wanted to cry in that moment. She wanted his arms around her to soothe her, and tell her everything was going to work out. But that would have been a lie. Because he is one of the Akatsuki. Because she would always be loyal to her village. And at some point, Sakura would have to make a choice. Why was fate so cruel?

Eventually the rest of the Akatsuki returned. Deidara came back with a mind-boggling amount of explosive clay, dropping everything in the middle of the living room and walking over to give Sakura a peck on the cheek. She just glared at him and ordered him to move the clay before someone tripped.

"If any of the members tripped over such an obvious obstacle, they don't deserve to be in the Akatsuki." Deidara scoffed. But he still relented to her and began to move them.

Hidan and Kakuzu returned afterwards, but Hidan tripped over one of the bags of clay Deidara had yet to move. He stood up cussing and raving while Deidara laughed, both he and Sakura thinking of his earlier statement. Kakuzu eventually told Hidan to shut up, making the silver haired member begin to yell at him, but still lowering the volume of his voice.

"Hidan, please stop with the language now." Sakura said calmly as she walked to the kitchen to find a cookbook. Her afternoon with Sasori kept her in good spirits, and Hidan wasn't going to ruin it.

"And who's gonna make me?" he yelled.

"I am merely asking." Sakura said, walking back into the room with a cookbook in her hand and sat down on the couch, opposite the end where Hidan was sitting. She was alone in the room with Kakuzu and Hidan currently.

Sasori had gone back to his room to smooth out what still remained from his time with Sakura; Tobi was off doing something or other; Zetsu was missing, as usual; and Kakuzu was sitting in a chair next to the sofa, reading a book, surprisingly.

"If it will make you quiet down," Sakura sighed, "I'll let you choose what I should cook tonight." Sakura offered the cookbook.

Hidan looked as if he was going to start protesting again, but for some reason he shut his mouth and took the book. A miracle. Sakura offered a prayer to whatever god had managed to shut the guy up. As Hidan flipped through the cookbook, looking at the pictures for whatever looked good, Sakura rested her legs on the couch, barely touching Hidan with her feet. She leaned back on the arm of the couch and stared at the ceiling.

'Inner Self?' she thought.

'_Always here.' Her Inner self replied._

'How the hell am I going to get through this? The more I think about it, the more confused and unsure I get. I feel like the Sakura form the Leaf village and the Sakura who lives with the Akatsuki are two similar people living different lives.' Her fingers curled as she thought.

'_Our experiences through our lives change who we are. This time with the Akatsuki will always be apart of who you are now.' Her Inner self stated._

'If only… Oh I don't know anymore!' she thought exasperated. 'If only we were different people. I don't like what these men do, but they've become…'

'_Friends?' Inner Sakura supplied._

'Maybe… They mean something to me now.' Sakura thought. 'And I know that I mean something to them now, too. I can see it in the way that the members relax around me, a lot more than when I first came here, a prisoner.'

'_They are more relaxed around you than with each other.' Her Inner self laughed._

'They are, aren't they?' Sakura mused. 'If only this could continue… I wish it would but at the same time I wish it wouldn't. I can't wait to go home, but-'

'_But at the same time this place has become something of a 'home' to you.' Inner Sakura completed her thoughts._

'Yeah…' Sakura looked around the plain living room, with Kakuzu reading in his chair, Hidan flipping through the cookbook across from her on the couch, and Zetsu now looking in the fridge for a bite.

'A part of me will always be with them, now.' She realized.

"-kura? Sakura!"

Sakura looked at Hidan. "Sorry, spacing."

Hidan snorted. "You sure were. What were you thinking about?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow at him, surprised he would care enough to ask. Hidan seemed to realize the fact and cleared his throat. He handed the book to her, its pages opened to a picture of some food.

"Anyway, I found what we should eat tonight." He muttered.

Sakura took the book and looked. "A casserole?" she asked surprised.

"I took into consideration what Kakuzu liked to eat." Hidan said stiffly. Then he added, "And I've always liked… tuna casserole."

Sakura covered her mouth to hide a grin. Kakuzu looked up at the mention of his name. So, they both liked these old-fashioned meals? How… human. They way the Akatsuki are feared in the villages, they don't seem human.

"I can see you smiling." Hidan glared.

"Sorry." Sakura said, her smile widening as she stood up from the couch.

"What's so funny?" Hidan asked defensively, his voice rising.

Sakura sighed. "Now hush, don't start yelling."

"I'm not yelling!" Hidan realized that he was, in fact, yelling, and lowered his voice. "Just… Oh come on, Sakura-san, I don't like you looking at me like that! No respect at all! Just tell me why you're smiling like that?"

Kakuzu chuckled from his chair.

Sakura smiled. "It's just that from how those in the ninja villages describe the members of the Akatsuki, people forget that you are all humans. And," she snickered, "that you like casseroles."

Hidan stared at her. "You're weird." He said, shaking his head and sat back down muttering about why he never dated.

"You don't date because you're a psychotic religious cultist. Not because women confuse you. They'd be too scared to even think about going out with you." Kakuzu said to him, not looking up from his book.

"Shut up." Hidan glared at him.

Sakura sighed. Looks like there would be another fight. Where had the other members suddenly gone? She decided to teach Hidan how to cook to keep him from starting a fight with his partner.

"Hidan, want to learn how to make a casserole?" she called from the kitchen as she searched for the ingredients.

"That's woman's work!" he yelled back.

That ticked her off. Sakura re-entered the living room, smiling waaay too sweetly. Hidan looked at her dubiously as Kakuzu shook his head, muttering at Hidan's idiocy.

"Hidan…" Sakura said a little too sweetly.

He gulped.

Her hand shot out and grabbed his ear, and she hulled him into the kitchen.

"What do you think you're doing? Crazy woman- How are you even strong enough to pull me like that? Wait- is that a spoon? What are you- hey!- ow! Hey! My ear could come off you know! Ow!- What- ow!"

"Baka…" Kakuzu muttered, setting his book down and smirking as he watched the show.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"What's going on down here?" Sasori asked as he came down the stairs to discover what the source was of all the noise that was interrupting his work upstairs.

"Your girlfriend's beating Hidan's ass with a wooden spoon." Kakuzu chuckled. "It's probably the most entertaining thing that's ever happened in this base."

"Wait- you say she's my girlfriend?" Sasori asked him with a bored voice, raising an eyebrow and acting indifferent.

"Oh don't act with me, Sasori." Kakuzu laughed. "You and I are the oldest members here. I know you, and I can see how different you are whenever she's around. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

Sasori studied Kakuzu. "Why would I trust you?"

"Oh I'm not keeping quiet for you." Kakuzu said in his deep voice. "I'm doing it for Sakura-san. I really don't understand why, but I like her. She's livened up this place."

"I didn't think you were the type to 'like' anything." Sasori looked at Hidan, still taking a beating from the pink haired girl.

"I'm not." Kakuzu said gruffly. "It's just her."

Sasori watched Kakuzu.

"You're lucky, you know." Kakuzu said. Sasori's eyebrows shot up, the only thing expressing his surprise.

"If the any of us of the Akatsuki had found someone like Sakura before they became a member, they never would have joined. I never would have joined. Something like that?" Kakuzu shook his head as he watched Sakura. "What man would give that up?"

Sasori watched Sakura. From what she could see, his girl had the situation well in hand. He turned to go back upstairs, more puppets waiting to be finished, when a thought struck him.

'_You called her 'your girl'.' That annoying voice in his head chuckled._

'You're back.' He thought, climbing the stairs.

'_I've always been here.' It stated._

'Well shut up.' Sasori told it.

'_Fine, fine…' it said, fading. 'Your girl…' it whispered, repeating his words._

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Sakura looked up to see Kakuzu approach. She lowered the spoon and let go of Hidan, watching the other Akatsuki member warily. Instead, Kakuzu seemed to regard her with… something akin to kindness. He acted gentler with her. Things were getting really weird in this base.

"Are you done beating up my partner?" he asked gruffly.

"That depends." Sakura turned to the man in question. "Are you going to be making any more sexist comments?"

"No…" Hidan muttered.

Sakura turned back to Kakuzu with a sly smile. "Then yes. I am done beating him up."

"I could've killed you, if I had wanted to…" Hidan growled. "But you didn't seem worth the effort."

Sakura waved the spoon at him, making the man flinch. "Ah, but I would have made sure I left you something to remember me by." She cackled.

"Hidan, you're making the situation worse for yourself." Kakuzu said to him.

Hidan glared.

"What do you think a good punishment would be for him, Sakura-san?" Kakuzu asked her in his monotonous deep voice.

Sakura grinned, making Hidan sweat.

"He has to cook the meal." She stated.

Hidan's mouth dropped open. "B-But I can't cook!" he protested, beginning to cuss in frustration.

"Don't worry, Hidan, I'll be here to help." She assured him. "But it's going to be mainly you cooking the casserole."

"Just make sure it's edible." Kakuzu said to her.

Sakura smiled. "Of course."

"Do I get a say in this?" Hidan yelled.

"No." Kakuzu and Sakura said without looking at him.

"Ah, fuck this shit…" Hidan grumbled. Sakura's hand shot out and grabbed the collar of his cloak before he could make his escape. He turned and glared at her.

"Don't. Cuss. In. My. Kitchen." She growled.

"Suddenly it's _your_ kitchen?" Hidan asked sarcastically.

"Yesssss." She hissed, and the look on her face made Hidan doubt his eagerness to pick a fight with her.

"I'll leave you two alone now." Kakuzu said, ignoring the dark energy in the air, figuring that Sakura couldn't kill Hidan without destroying her precious kitchen first. "Hidan, watch the knives."

"What? Why?" Hidan looked up confused.

"In case Sakura decides to kill you." Kakuzu said calmly as he walked out.

Sakura grinned. Hidan watched as his chance for survival quickly lowered. He sighed. "Okay, how do you make a fuc- I mean, a casserole?"

Sakura nodded. "Well here are your ingredients; go get a pan from that cabinet, and start looking at how you are supposed to prepare the food. The cookbook will walk you though the steps, but if you have any questions, ask me."

"What are you going to do?" he asked her.

"I'll be making side dishes." She said. "Oh, do you know if Kisame and Itachi will be back tonight?"

"Not tonight, no." he answered.

Sakura nodded. "Okay, then two casseroles should be enough for everyone."

"But I though I was just making one?" Hidan protested.

"Oh don't worry." Sakura said without looking gat him as she began preparing the first side dish. "If you don't like making the first casserole, I won't make you cook the other one. But I expect you to do your best on the first one!"

They worked together in the kitchen; Sakura finished making all the side dishes just as Hidan had managed to complete the first casserole. With a lot of help from Sakura he managed not to burn it to a crisp. She cut a small portion and set it out to cool so she could taste it. While the portion cooled, Sakura began making the other casserole, and surprisingly, Hidan helped out as well, grudgingly admitting that he had enjoyed cooking.

"How is it?" he asked nonchalantly as Sakura tasted the portion of the casserole he had made.

"Honest answer?" she asked him.

Hidan nodded.

"Actually, it's not too bad." She smiled. "It's lacking a few spices, but then again, no one's expecting you to be a master chef. But I will admit, I expected it to be a lot worse. Good job, Hidan-san."

Hidan turned away, but Sakura thought she noticed him blushing. She crept closer, peering intently at his cheeks while he was distracted. He _was_ blushing!

Sakura giggled, startling Hidan.

"Fuck!" he gasped seeing her watching him. "Woman, what do you think you're doing?"

"Are you blushing, Hidan-san?" she asked him, ignoring his question. Hidan's blush darkened.

"No!" he said determinedly.

"Oh my-! You _are_!" she cried with a laugh.

"N-No! The heat in this kitchen is just warming my face!" Hidan said, waving his hands and shaking his head.

"Like that's a valid excuse!" she laughed as she turned back to the casserole. Sakura couldn't stop smiling as Hidan kept cursing and muttering about crazy females behind her.

"So why are you blushing?" she asked him while the casserole was cooking.

"I said I wasn't blushing!" he said loudly.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I am a girl, Hidan. Girls can see a blush a mile away. Out with it!"

He glared at her. Sakura moved her fingers in a 'come on' fashion, watching him in mock sternness. Hidan relented.

"You called me Hidan-_san_." He muttered, looking away.

Sakura blinked. "That's all?"

"Well- that and- well… you liked… my… casserole." His voice got quieter.

Sakura struggled not to laugh, but couldn't help the mix of a smirk and an amused smile that spread across her face. Hidan glanced at her face and his cheeks flamed, making it even harder to control her laughter. Her hand came up to smother the snort that escaped her.

"Stop disrespecting me!" Hidan yelled.

Sakura kept smiling but took a step towards Hidan. He glared at her and took a step back. She closed the space between them too quickly for Hidan to escape and gently patted him on the head. Which was a feat for her petite form against his tall one.

"Aw, don't be like that Hidan." She said lightly. "I find it touching that you care!"

He didn't stop glaring at her.

"Oh don't be such a spoil-sport. I found what you said amusing, but I wasn't laughing _at _you." She tried to calm him.

"Yes, you were." He said gruffly, pointedly ignoring her patting his head.

"Okay, maybe I was." She laughed.

Hidan looked at her, and she caught him studying her face.

"What? Did I get something on my face?" she asked, her hands flying to her cheeks.

"No." he answered.

"Oh. That's good." She sighed with a smile, then turned to finish cleaning the counter and putting the ingredients away.

"Your face… is perfect…" Hidan said quietly, turning to leave the kitchen.

"Thanks for helping with dinner!" Sakura called, not having heard what Hidan had said. "Can you go tell the others to come down for dinner?"

Hidan turned and nodded at her, then left. Sakura stood there, watching after him after he had left.

'Huh.' She thought. 'He seemed oddly… quiet when he left. Quiet and… confused? Huh. I must have imagined it.' Sakura turned back to wiping down the counter, then began to deliver the food to the table.

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><p><strong>Awwww I think that's just the cutest thing I have ever written! (And I don't usually do 'cute') Reviews please!<strong>

**Hidan: *blush* DON'T CALL ME CUTE!**

**Me: *giggle***

**Also, I've had people ask me for more Akatsuki X Sakura pairings. So if there's a certain pairing you would like like to see, request it in your REVIEW and I will see what I can do. The two most asked for pairings will be worked into the story ^_^**


	7. Chapter 7

**DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN NARUTO**

**CHAPTER SEVEN! Yay!**

**Now I am going to try and keep this story going, but I will be busy for a while. But do not worry, I will keep writing, even if it's just in my head lol. I enjoy every review I get, so please send more! And remember- the top two requested Akatsuki X Sakura pairings will be worked into the story. ****WARNING- LONG FLASHBACK!**

**Enjoy!~~**

* * *

><p><em><span>Chapter Seven: The Rogue's point of view<span>_

Sasuke led Neji to the sight where they had found the headband. The clouds were very dark that morning, threatening to rain later that day. The winds were just strong enough to move the trees, the leaves smacking the shinobi as the two of them ran through the trees in silence.

"It was here, hanging from the tree branch over there." Sasuke pointed up at the branch in question. More moss had collected since last time.

Neji activated his Byakugan and looked around.

"I don't see anything unusual in the area." He said as his gaze swept over the area. He came closer to the tree with his Byakugan still activated. "And there's nothing unusual about the tree. That headband could be anybody's."

"But this isn't exactly a place where Konoha does its business." Sasuke said.

"And what would you know of the business of Konoha?" Neji asked a little coldly.

Sasuke didn't answer as Neji continued to scout the area. Neji pulled out a clipboard and began to make basic drawings of the area, until he had mapped out a five mile radius around the location of where the headband was found. He had his Byakugan activated the entire time, but he still didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

The headband had been found near the base of one of the mountains in the area, although the mountains were almost too small to be considered so. But they were far from looking like hills, with jagged peaks and treacherous rocky terrain. Neji and Sasuke scouted around that particular mountain, but still found nothing.

"I doubt that the Akatsuki will be found that easily." Neji said as he put his clipboard and pencils back into his pack. He glanced at the sky. "Come on, it looks like it's about to rain."

The two men ran back to the village, carefully covering their trail just in case any enemies were nearby. When they reached the village, it was still around noon, and the village was busy with the lunch rush. It would be a while until the observation teams were done scouting some other areas that Shikamaru thought might be possible Akatsuki base locations, so until then the men went back to their rooms.

Neji entered behind Sasuke into Sasuke's and Naruto's room. He walked up to the temporary billboard the team had set up and began to post the sketches he had made of the area where the headband had been found. Neji placed them all to form one large map of the area, and then brought out his pencils to begin adding details and notes.

Meanwhile, Sasuke sat against the window sill, looking into the sky with a blank expression on his face. In his hand he held what he was sure was Sakura's headband. His thumb rubbed the shiny metal surface with Konoha's symbol engraved on it. Sasuke's own headband had a cut that ran across it, symbolizing that he had gone rogue. His hand suddenly gripped the headband with ferocity.

Sasuke wasn't sure why he was here, helping his old teammates find Sakura. No wait, he did know why he was here. To find Sakura. What he didn't understand was why he wanted to find her.

On some level he knew that it was because she had been his teammate. She had been a friend. Just like Naruto. And once, there was the potential that he and Sakura could have been more than friends, if he had chosen to stay in the village. But that wasn't entirely the reason why he had chosen to help. But the other reason kept flitting out of his grasp, leaving him without the complete answer to his question.

'It might also be because of what that Hinata girl had said.' Sasuke mused. 'When she suggested what those Akatsuki members might do to her. It might have been that old instinct to protect my weaker teammate.' Although from how Naruto described her, Sakura had gotten extremely stronger since they had parted.

'Not strong enough to get her out of this mess.' He thought. But he knew that wasn't a fair evaluation of Sakura. The Akatsuki more extremely powerful, and it would take more than just an ordinary ninja to defeat them.

Maybe he had chosen to help because it had been one of those 'spur-of-the-moment' things. Or maybe it was how those other ninjas had acted as if Sakura's kidnapping was nothing to worry about. But then that would mean he was going soft. Sasuke went over the night he had discovered Naruto's group.

He had seen their fire, the team had certainly not tried to hide their location. Finding it odd, he and Team Hebi decided to go check it out. Imagine his surprise to see a spiky blonde Naruto in an orange and black jumpsuit.

He studied the rest of the group, first noticing Neji Hyuuga, the impressive fighter that he had dueled so long ago during the Exams. Then he noticed Shikamaru, looking a lot more awake than Sasuke remembered him, although the man still had that lazy aura about him.

Next Sasuke noticed the girls. First he saw Ino, one of his old fangirls. Her hair was a lot thicker and longer now, and she was definitely taller. Watching Ino talk and laugh loudly, Sasuke thought of how some people never change. Sasuke noticed Neji move to sit next to a blue haired girl.

She had seemed familiar. When her gaze lifted from the ground, Sasuke recognized the white eyes of the Hyuuga. What had her name been? He couldn't quite remember.

But something about the group bothered him. 'These people came to take me back to Konoha.' Sasuke studied them all. 'Who else should be here?' The answer hit him like a punch to the gut. A certain pink-haired girl should have been there.

'Probably on another mission and was unable to come.' He thought, and it bothered Sasuke that the thought still troubled him.

_Or she hates your guts for what you did to her. Maybe she finally realized that you weren't worth waiting for._

The thought had come unbidden in his mind, popping up out of nowhere. Sasuke knew that his teammates of Team Hebi were watching him scowl as they waited for orders. But Sasuke wasn't finished thinking.

'I shouldn't be stressed that she isn't there.' He thought. But the thought only meant that he had admitted that the lack of Sakura's presence troubled him. 'Stop being sentimental.' He told himself.

_You know that neither Naruto nor Sakura would leave each other to find you. Naruto would have brought Sakura with him no matter what._

Sasuke frowned now. That annoying voice in his head was right. Sakura would have dropped any mission to come along. Something wasn't right. Activating his Sharingan, Sasuke snuck closer to the camp. He now noticed how their movements seemed slightly strained, and he there was a sense of emptiness emanating off of them. Parts of the conversation reached his ears.

"_-that_ _bracelet, isn't it?" Ino's voice drifted through the night as she pointed at the Hyuuga girl's wrist._

Sasuke snuck closer to hear the group better.

"_Yeah." She answered, looking at Ino's __wrist where there sat an identical silver bracelet._

"_Hey, you both have identical bracelets!" Naruto exclaimed.__ The other men in the group looked at the girls' bracelets._

Sasuke smirked. 'Dobe. Always stating the obvious.' He thought.

"_Where did you get those?" Shikamaru asked__ them._

"_They were part of a set called the Triplets." Ino answered._

"_But there's only two." Naruto pointed out._

"_Thank you Captain Obvious." Shikamaru rolled his eyes._

"_Just sayin'." Naruto crossed his arms._

'Dobe.' Sasuke thought again looking at Naruto.

"_There were three, originally."__ The Hyuuga girl sniffed, wiping a tear away._

_Neji placed his hand on her shoulder. "Who had the third?"_

Why was he getting a bad feeling about this now? Sasuke wondered, rolling his shoulders to soothe the tension he had unknowingly built there. He had to relax.

_Ino and the Hyuuga girl looked at each other. Then they both spoke the same word at the same time, looking immensely sad._

"_Sakura." They said._

Sasuke went still. His fears had been confirmed. Something did happen to Sakura. He could tell by the stunned that settle over the group, and how everyone was suddenly sad in the group.

"_We will never give up, Hinata." Ino said quietly._

Ah, so the Hyuuga girl's name was Hinata. Sasuke remembered her now. Always blushing and stuttering; Naruto comepletely clueless of coarse. Blonde idiot.

"_Damn right we won't!" Naruto __had growled. "You'll see, Hinata. She'll be back and this will all have been a bad dream."_

"_But it's not a dream." The Hinata girl whispered._

"_Sakura wouldn't want us to cry, Hinata." Neji told her__ as he put his arm around her shoulder._

"_Yeah," Ino had smiled sadly. "She'd be hitting us in the head and yelling at us how crying doesn't help in any way."_

"_Yeah, she would be."__ Hinata's laugh was strained._

'They make it sound as if she is dead.' Sasuke thought absently. Then the world seemed to stop. 'No. Sakura couldn't be dead. They mean it some other way.' Sasuke tried to reassure himself. But the doubt remained.

He had to find out. Sasuke turned and ordered his team to stay behind him but not to talk. Then he stood up and walked into the firelight.

Naruto's group jumped into a defensive circle at the sound of Sasuke entering.

"_Who's there?" Naruto called out._

"The one you're looking for." Sasuke said.

"_Well he could have just done that in the first place instead of making us search the mountain." __Sasuke heard Ino muttered._

"_Hush, Ino." Shikamaru glared at Ino._

"_Just sayin'." She shrugged._

"Naruto." Sasuke stared at them. "I see you brought friends this time, but I overheard your conversation. Where's Sakura?"

Sasuke immediately noticed the tensed silence. It was much worse when he was closer than when he had just been observing them.

"Maybe I should be asking what happened to Sakura?" Sasuke asked. 'Naruto, you useless idiot, what have you done now?' he thought, and Sasuke was surprised by the anger in his thoughts.

"_Who's Sakura?" __Karin asked behind him asked with a hint of jealousy in her annoying voice._

Sasuke made a sign with his hand behind his back telling her to shut up. He heard Suigetsu muttering to Karin to follow orders and her reluctantly agreeing to be quiet. 'Why do I keep her around?' Sasuke took a moment to ask himself.

"_Why does it matter to you?" Neji spoke up._

Sasuke turned to look at Neji. "A Hyuuga. Neji, if I remember correctly."

_Neji nodded._

"It matters because she is my ex-teammate." Sasuke said, his voice slightly irritated. "Plus, I am curious."

Sasuke refused to admit to himself that he was worried for Sakura.

"_How troublesome you and your team are." Shikamaru said obnoxiously._

Sasuke turned his narrowed eyes on the laziest ninja he had ever met. In front of Sasuke, Naruto swiveled to glare at his comrade.

"_Naruto by himself is such a handful." Shikamaru had complained. "And with the Akatsuki after him we have to follow him around in order to keep in protected. And then you're off gallivanting with criminals while your annoying and loyal friend here convinces the Hokage to let him look for you."_

'So that's the story.' Sasuke had mused.

"_Yeah," Neji agreed __with Shikamaru._

Sasuke looked back at the Hyuuga boy.

"_And then your other teammate… Sakura, right? Then she has to go missing! And because she's the Hokage's precious apprentice, the village begins to scour the country looking for her, wasting valuable resources."_

'They act as if she's dirt!' Sasuke thought and clenched his fist to keep himself from attacking the two men. He knew that he had also treated Sakura in the same fashion when they were young but… this was different. He didn't like how these men treated Sakura's name. These people were supposed to be her friends.

"_They made such a big deal out of it!" Shikamaru complained. "Ninjas disappear all the time. Sakura wasn't the first kunoichi to go missing, and she won't be the last."_

Shikamaru's last statement echoed in Sasuke's mind. '_Sakura wasn't the first kunoichi to go missing, and she won't be the last.'_ It repeated itself over and over in his head. Sasuke didn't know why it bothered him so much, but it did.

"How can you say that?" Sasuke said with a dangerously calm voice. He wouldn't lose control. "Naruto, how can you let them say that?"

_Naruto's jaw clenched as he turned to Sasuke. "I…"_

"_Because you know it's true, Naruto." Ino interrupted with a sad voice. "Sakura is gone. Too much time has passed and you know it. There's no way she's still alive by now."_

"And why do you say that?" Sasuke snapped without thinking. He couldn't help but glare at her. "Weren't you supposed to be her best friend? Some friend you are then." He spat.

Sasuke saw the hurt look on Ino's face with satisfaction.

"_Sasuke," Ino said angrily. "When a kunoichi goes missing, the first two days are the window of opportunity. But after a week the kunoichi is likely dead. After a month there is no way she's coming back."_

'And what if it were you?' Sasuke wanted to ask her, but he couldn't even bring himself to speak to her. If he did he might just give in to the temptation to hurt her. But what Ino said echoed in Sasuke's mind.

"And how long has it been?" Sasuke asked Naruto with as much calm as he could muster.

"_Almost three months now." Naruto replied, closing his eyes in pain for a moment. "It was my fault."_

"How was it your fault?" Sasuke didn't stop his voice from becoming cold. 'What have you done, dobe?' he thought angrily.

_Naruto didn't answer immediately, looking away from Sasuke guiltily._

"Answer me, Naruto! What did you do?" Sasuke demanded. 'Gods help me, Naruto, I will have your hide if you don't explain yourself!' The anger in his own thoughts shocked Sasuke.

"_I should have been there!" Naruto yelled, a tear trailing down his cheek._

Sasuke could hear the guilt in his voice.

"_Her partner was killed, and she was left to fight alone!" Naruto's fury was intimidating to everyone but Sasuke. "But I let my anger control me and I allowed myself to be tricked into fighting someone else farther away. They separated us, and I let it happen! She was already weak from healing Kankuro from that poison, but she came along to help anyway! And I took too long to get back to her… I played right into the Akatsuki's hands…"_

Sasuke glared at Naruto. "You let her be taken by the _Akatsuki_?"

'By the gods, Naruto!' Sasuke wanted to throttle him. 'You were supposed to keep her safe! You were supposed to protect Sakura! You fool!' Sasuke wanted to yell, but not here, not in front of so many people.

"_Well sorry, next time we'll make sure she's taken by the __Mist Ninja." Ino snapped at him, her voice dripping with sarcasm._

"_This is such a touching reunion." Shikamaru grumbled at the same time._

"SHUT UP!" Sasuke and Naruto yelled at Shikamaru. Gods help him, Sasuke wanted to kill everyone here. Shikamaru especially. And Ino. And Neji. They were all being complete assholes right now, and Sasuke's fingers were itching towards his sword. Just one swipe…

Sasuke turned to Naruto. "You were supposed to protect her!" he hissed low enough for no one but Naruto to hear.

"_I can't always be there!" Naruto said angrily._

"But you were! And yet you failed!" Sasuke replied. "You fool!"

"_Come on, Naruto, let's get this over with." Ino suddenly called impatiently._

Naruto and Sasuke glanced back at her.

"So you've come to take me back while Sakura is still out there and in more danger than I am?" Sasuke asked, the statement angering him.

_Naruto growled._

"_Well she's not in danger if she's dead." Neji said sarcastically._

"YOU SHUT UP, HYUUGA!" Sasuke roared. 'Gods help me, just one swipe and that boy will be dead!' Sasuke thoughts were violent.

"_Death would be better for her." Hinata muttered._

"What did you say?" Sasuke finally looked at the Hyuuga girl for the first time; he had dismissed her until now.

"_I said that death would be better for her!" Hinata said, her voice was nervous and shaky. "Think about it! She was captured by the most powerful criminal organizations in the country, and as far as we know, all its members are evil, sick, demented men. What are men like that going to do with a pretty girl like Sakura?"_

The entire clearing was quiet and in shock. Sasuke thought over her words, and the images that his mind created unsettled him greatly. The things the Akatsuki were probably doing to Sakura right now… Sasuke clenched his jaw so tightly that he thought he would chip a tooth. He would kill every Akatsuki member who touched Sakura.

"_Everyone back in the village didn't want to think about it! They just kept saying 'she'll be fine' and 'she's a strong girl'. They just couldn't bear the thought of what those men might do to her!" There were __tears on her cheeks, but Hinata ignored them and continued. "But I thought about it! I couldn't seem to __**stop**__ thinking about it!"_

Sasuke listened to the Hyuuga girl's words. She was right. The Akatsuki would hurt Sakura in ways they couldn't begin to imagine.

"_Sakura managed to send us one last clue as to where they were taking her, but we still weren't able to find her! Yet you don't even want us to find you, but here you are! It's. Not. Fair!"__ The Hinata girl was trembling with rage, clutching her kunai._

Hinata was right. It wasn't fair. Sasuke hated Konoha more than ever. They were all fools! Hinata had mentioned a clue… Smart Sakura.

"_Huh. Never thought of it that way." Shikamaru said as if he were commenting on the weather. "I guess there are some things worse than death. And it's been three months already. Must suck for her if she's still alive."_

"SHUT UP!" both Naruto and Sasuke yelled. 'I will kill him…' Sasuke thought as a tear escaped his eye. But no one seemed to notice it, thank the gods. 'What has gotten into me?' he wondered briefly, but his attention returned to Shikamaru and Neji. 'They act as if she's nothing more than a dog to be tossed into the streets!'

Sasuke glared at Shikamaru, then at Neji. "You all sicken me." He spat.

"_This is touching." Ino said sarcastically._

"Be quiet, Ino!" Sasuke harshly. Her mouth snapped shut. Sasuke was majorly pissed off.

"What was this last clue Sakura sent?" he asked Hinata.

_Hinata straightened__. "That's classified."_

"Screw classified!" Sasuke yelled at her, making her the girl cringe. "Where did she say they were taking her?"

"_I'll t-tell you if you come with __us without a fight." Hinata said with a shaky voice._

Sasuke ran his hand through his hair, sighing.

"Fine…" he muttered. He heard Team Hebi behind him gasp quietly.

"_What's that? I don't think my friend here heard you." Ino mocked. "Speak up, Uchiha."_

"I said 'fine'!" he yelled. 'You bitch, Ino.' Sasuke thought angrily.

"_I'll tell you once we are well on our way to Konoha." Hinata said__ with a surprised face._

Sasuke could feel Naruto staring at him in shock.

"_How do we know you'll keep your word?" Shikamaru asked with a yawn._

Sasuke glared at Shikamaru. 'I will run my blade through your heart and feel its pulse slowly fade…' he thought darkly.

"I promise not to run off once you tell me the clue." Sasuke promised. "And I promise to come with you without a fight."

"_That's not much to go on." Neji pointed out._

"I never break a promise." Sasuke snapped at the Hyuuga.

"_Sure you do." Ino piped. "But now isn't the time to dwell on that. I'm tired and I'd like some sleep before we leave in the morning."_

_Sasuke's team was already walking back to their camp._

"Before going to Konoha though…" Sasuke said, getting everyone's attention. "I want you to take me to the last place you were searching for Sakura. And I want us to try and find her."

_Ino's face clouded with dark rage that had surprised even Sasuke. She stalked over to Sasuke so fast that no one had time to react as she fixed him with an icy blue glare and stopped inches from his face._

"_**Since when do you care about Sakura?"**__ she yelled at him. "She never meant anything to you! And for your information, Sakura has lived almost four years now without you! And guess what? She's been happy! And when have you ever made her happy?"_

"_Ino…" Naruto reached out for her but she slapped his hand._

"_Don't go pretending that you care, Uchiha." She hissed. "Sakura is better off without you giving her false hopes and then ripping them away from her for kicks! I bet you think it's so funny! Sweet, gullible Sakura; fall for anything!"_

"_Ino!" Shikamaru put a hand to his forehead. "Troublesome woman!"_

"_But she's your troublesome woman." Neji said. "I'm not suicidal enough to go try and stop that. Shikamaru, this is you problem."_

"_Thanks." Shikamaru grumbled._

"_No." Hinata told them. "Let her speak."_

_Shikamaru, Neji, and Naruto stared Ino, then eagerly backed away._

"I don't think it's funny!" Sasuke had protested furiously. 'Whoa, where did this come from?' he thought.

"_Oh so I guess this is just a measure of yourself? See how many times you can hurt a girl before she realizes that she should just stay away?" Ino snapped. "If Sakura means nothing to you, Sasuke, then don't go trying to help her."_

_And with that Ino spun on her heel and walked away, her ponytail whipping Sasuke in the face._

Sasuke turned around to follow his teammates.

"I'll meet you all here tomorrow morning." He said over his shoulder, then walked into the woods.

Sasuke had finally wiped his cheek, angry at himself for the tears. 'I never cry.' He told himself. What Ino had said to him kept ringing in his ears.

"_-__so I guess this is just a measure of yourself?"_

It reminded Sasuke of what his brother had said on that fateful night…

"_-a measure of myself…" Itachi's eyes glowing red in the moonlight…_

Sasuke turned and punched a holed into a tree. Whether she had been intentional or not, Ino had just turned him into the man he hated most. Sasuke growled and clenched his hands.

_And now Sakura is within Itachi's reach._

The thought popped into Sasuke's mind and wouldn't leave. Sasuke punched the tree again. Then again.

"It's not my problem!" he growled, but knew he was lying to himself. He would never forgive himself if he didn't go help Sakura. Not when she was in his brother's grasp. Along with the other sick and twisted men of the Akatsuki.

Sasuke blinked and looked away from the window. There was an unfamiliar feeling in his gut. It settled there and wouldn't leave, making him feel something akin to worry.

'It's _not_ worry.' He tried to tell himself.

_Of course not. _Some inner voice said sarcastically.

Neji made a disgruntled noise, and Sasuke looked up to find the Hyuuga staring at a large blank spot on the map he had drawn.

"What's the blank spot?" Sasuke asked with an emotionless voice.

"It's that damn mountain. The sides are too treacherous for anyone to climb without the proper equipment." Neji grumbled.

"He's just a perfectionist." Came a soft voice from across the room.

Sasuke's eyes snapped to the owner of the voice. The Hyuuga girl was sitting serenely on the other sit of the room. He hadn't notice her come in. Her eyes were on Sasuke. Those eyes, a pale cream color that gave nothing away. The Hyuuga eyes had always bothered him, but hers more so because of that immensely calm aura she radiated.

"Hinata is your name, right?" he asked absently.

Hinata dipped her head in a 'yes'. She was very different from the girl he had seen back in Konoha, her voice as soft as ever, but now had an experienced edge to it and less stutters. Life in the field had changed her. It had changed everyone Sasuke once knew in the village.

"Hinata, stop calling me that." Neji muttered as he kept staring at the map that stretched across almost twenty sheets of paper.

"Well you are." She said with a small smile.

Sasuke watched her. The girl was too mild and quiet for his tastes.

"I am not a perfectionist." Neji turned to look at Hinata.

She just smiled up at him. "You keep on saying that. The others would agree with me."

Neji just rolled his eyes and held his hand out to her. Hinata took his hand and let Neji help her up. They turned to look at Sasuke.

"We will be browsing the market, if anyone comes to ask where we've gone." Neji said. Hinata offered Sasuke a nervous smile, and together the Hyuugas walked out of his room.

Sasuke watched them go. He sighed and looked down to realize he still had Sakura's headband in his hand. He brought his hand in his lap and held the headband in both hands. Hesitantly, Sasuke brought the headband to his nose and sniffed.

But the headband had been in the forest too long, exposed to the elements. All traces of Sakura's scent were gone from it, if it was indeed her headband. Disappointed, Sasuke brought it down and smoothed it out on his lap.

_What had she been thinking when she placed that headband on that tree? Scared? Desperate?_

Sasuke stared intently at the headband, rubbing his thumb across its shiny surface. Sakura…

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"Wow!" Tobi exclaimed. "And Hidan made the casserole? Tobi is impressed!"

Hidan harrumphed and kept eating. Kakuzu merely nodded his approval of the food that Hidan and Sakura had made. Sasori's mouth twitched in a smile as he glanced at Sakura and winked. She felt herself blush.

Deidara didn't say anything, concentrating only on the large helping of the casserole he was stuffing into his mouth. Sakura watched in amused horror as Deidara's hands also helped themselves to the food. It was mortifying, but she couldn't look away!

"Tobi wonders what Sakura is looking at?" Tobi called to her.

Sakura pointed at Deidara.

Deidara paused in his reign of terror and glanced up. "Why is everyone looking at me?"

"Well I guess it is disturbing…" Kakuzu said as he turned back to his food.

"We just got used to it." Sasori shrugged.

"It's just… I. Can't. Look. Away." Sakura stared.

Deidara grinned at her. "Or maybe it's just my good looks."

"Yeah right." Sakura snapped and went back to eating.

"So Hidan really did cook?" Deidara asked everyone at the table. "How in that world did you guys manage to get him to do that?"

"Sakura beat him with a spoon." Sasori said calmly as if it was an every day incident.

"You saw?" Sakura asked, surprised.

Sasori rolled his eyes. "You guys were making such a racket down here, I had to make sure you weren't beating Hidan too badly."

"Hey, I could have taken her if I really wanted to!" Hidan protested.

"But I didn't want to get involved in whatever your problem with him was. Besides, whatever it was, he probably deserved it." Sasori continued as he ignored Hidan's protests.

"Hey! Why am I always the one being abused?" Hidan complained loudly.

"Oh it's not _always_ you." Deidara said in a sarcastically comforting voice. "It's usually Tobi here."

"Deidara-sempai, pwease be nice to Tobi!" Tobi whined.

"No." Deidara said as he stuffed his three mouths again.

Sakura chuckled. Hidan went back to his insistent grumbling as Kakuzu ate in silence, Tobi was bothering Deidara who was studiosly ignoring Tobi. Sakura's eyes glanced sideways at Sasori. He smirked as he calmly continued to eat without looking at Sakura. But she knew that the smirk was meant for only her to see.

After dinner the members of the Akatsuki left to go to their rooms and do whatever they needed to do. Sakura stayed behind and began to clean up after everyone. Her mind was quiet as she washed the dishes, the movements slow as she watched the suds bubble.

Suddenly someone handed her the next dirty dish as she was about to reach for it. Sakura looked up in surprise to see Sasori standing there. She glanced around the kitchen to find he had already helped clean up the messes she had yet to reach.

"Thanks." She smiled and took the plate. After she finished that one, Sasori handed her the next one, the last plate to wash. Setting it on the rack to dry, they walked back to her room in silence.

"Do you… want… to come in?" she asked him, trying to stop the blush that was already settling on her cheeks.

Sasori's signature calm smile settled on his lips. He took a step towards Sakura, staring intently down at her. Gently, his hand reached up and brushed her cheeks where they were blushing.

Sakura caught her breath at his sudden proximity, looking up into his eyes, lighted by the faint starlight that fell through the window across from her door. His touch sent tingles down her spine, clutching her insides.

"Has anyone ever told you how pretty you are when you blush?" he asked as his lips brushed the top of her head.

"No." she answered softly, looking up at him.

"Good." He said. "Otherwise I'd have to kill them for looking at you."

Sakura studied Sasori, trying to figure out if he was serious or not. Best not to push it. She opened the door behind her and let them in, lighting a candle on her nightstand. It lit up the room with a faint glow, very romantic.

She walked over to the dresser and searched for her pajamas.

"I don't think those will be necessary." Sasori's smooth voice drifted into her ear as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.

Sakura felt her heart speed up. Warm tingling feelings were already shooting through her body, like wicked little fireworks. She placed her hands on his arms and leaned back into him.

Leaning her head back onto her shoulder, Sakura looked at the ceiling. She felt Sasori's red hair brush her face as he placed a kiss on her neck. They stood like that for a few minutes, with his head leaning against her neck and his arms around her waist. It was such a perfect moment that Sakura never wanted it to end.

She twisted her head to look at him, placing a kiss on his ear. He responded by kissing her collarbone. Gods this man made her feel alive. She felt his hands rubbing her abdomen, nothing sedeuctive, just loving touches.

"You've changed me, Sakura." He said without raising his head. She felt his breath go down her shirt as he spoke, his the vibrations of his voice echoing through her body. Sakura traced her fingers over his hands.

"My life back in Konoha will never be the same." She said quietly.

Sakura felt Sasori stiffen. 'Oh Sasori…' she thought sadly.

"You won't ever be going back. How long will it take for you to realize this?" he sighed. "The Akatsuki will never let them take you back."

"I know my friends, Sasori. I know Naruto." Sakura said. "They will find me."

"Sakura…" he sighed, frustrated. He pulled her closer to him.

She felt a tear in her eye, but forced it back.

"The Akatsuki will never let you go." He paused. "I will never let you go."

Sakura sagged against him, and Sasori held her up. Picking her up, he took her to her bed and laid her down, crawling onto the bed after her. He lay next to her, and put his arms around her, pulling her close. She turned into him and laid her forehead against his chest.

"I can't stay here forever. You know that." She said.

"They won't let you leave-"

"And what are they going to do with me for the rest of my life?" she interrupted him calmly. "I won't join the Akatsuki. I'm not one of you. I never will be."

"I don't want you to join the Akatsuki!" Sasori exclaimed, although his voice was soft. "You wouldn't be the same person if you did."

Sakura glanced at him.

"The things the Akatsuki does…" Sasori sighed. "I am a cold blooded killer. I never tried to make you think differently. I don't have a problem with the things I have done in my past. I don't have a problem with what the Akatsuki has us commit. But you would definitely be appalled at what we do. I don't want you to be exposed to such things."

"I'm not a little girl to be protected." Sakura objected to him.

"That's not what the other Akatsuki members think of you." He chuckled. "Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that the things you would see as a full member of Akatsuki would change you. So in a way, I guess I am trying to protect you."

Sakura nodded. "I think I understand."

Sasori ran his hand over her hair. "My lovely flower… You really have changed me."

"I heard a saying once, though I can't remember where." Sakura said softly. "It goes: 'If there is anything that can change event he most stubborn of men, it is a woman'."

Sasori chuckled softly. "And I have experienced it first hand."

Sakura leaned her head back to allow Sasori to kiss her. Their kissing grew gradually deeper and more passionate. With him stroking her back, Sakura arched up against him. His body was warm, and she marveled at the life that he seemed to emanate whenever she was with him like this. This man loved her as if she were going to disappear at any second, and Sakura loved how he seemed to savor each moment they had together.

'_Because you will leave one day…' Her Inner thoughts whispered darkly._

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><p><strong>Oh the supsense! *DUN DUN DUN* Does anyone else get the feeling that something big is going to happen? *gasp!*<strong>

**Lol because I have no idea what I'm gonna do for the next chapter *nervous laugh*. I would love to hear what you guys think will happen next. Remember- Your reviews _do_ have influence over how I write ^_^**

**REVIEWS REVIEWS REVIEWS PWEASE!**


	8. Chapter 8

**WOOHOO! CHAPTER EIGHT! So I'm getting a lot of Deisaku comments... And I will thank those people who asked for it because that is _exactly_ what I wanted to do! Thanks for reading my mind, lol. This chapter and the next are going to mainly focus on the Leaf ninjas I think. The Akatsuki base is at a standstill while the Leaf ninjas make their move... *gasp* did I give something away? Bad author! Anyway, enough rambling, on with the story! P.S. THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS!**

**And can I ask another favor from you all? Look at my next story, The Tempest please! I wanna see how you guys like it! If you don't... I'll just have to delete it. *tear***

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><p><em>Chapter Eight: A Sight to See<em>

"We've been at this for a week, and no sign of Sakura or the Akatsuki!" Naruto said in frustration as he paced back and forth.

"N-N-Naruto, p-please c-calm d-down." Hinata watched him worriedly.

"Naruto is right." Ino said. "Shikamaru, why does it feel like this search is getting us nowhere?"

"Ino…" Shikamaru sighed. "It's is too troublesome to explain. Neji, you do the talking."

Neji shook his head in exasperation. "Fine… Naruto, sit down already!"

As Naruto passed Sasuke in his pacing the Uchiha reached up and jerked Naruto back to the floor, glaring at him. Reluctantly Naruto folded his legs under him and sat still. The tension in the room lessened some.

"Now," Neji began. "What we have learned so far. We have no proof that the Akatsuki base is indeed near here except for Sakura's note. No sightings, no nothing. Now, it takes about two days to reach the location of where Sakura's supposed head band was found; that is, if we run at top speed non stop."

"Neji and I think that we have found the most strategic location of a possible secret entrance into the mountain. But we can't guarantee anything." Shikamaru said.

Neji nodded. "But, if it is not the entrance, we will have given ourselves away. So we need to watch that particular spot very closely next week."

Everyone nodded. That next week they would be leaving the town and setting up their base at the camp they had established in the area they were scouting. Now scouting routines would focus with the small mountain of that area, which was the most prominent land figure in the vicinity of where the head band had been found. If the Akatsuki had a base, it would be that mountain.

"Now I have good news and bad news." Shikamaru sighed.

"Go ahead." Naruto nodded to him.

"Good news is- if this is the Akatsuki base, we are extremely close and closing in on Sakura." Shikamaru said in a serious voice. "But the bad news is… If we mess up even the slightest bit next week, get detected even once, we are either dead or Sakura is gone. And then we lose."

Everyone was tense.

"T-This is it." Hinata whispered. "We're so close."

"Everyone is dismissed now." Shikamaru said. "Neji and I are going to go over the maps now."

With that Hinata and Ino stood up to go back to their room. Since Naruto and Sasuke were already in their room, they stood up to walk outside while Shikamaru and Neji began to poor over the papers.

Outside in the village, Naruto spotted a sign for a ramen vendor and decided to go check it out. The blonde boy ran ahead to get in line. Meanwhile his raven haired companion kept a slower pace, knowing he'd catch up with Naruto once he reached the line for the ramen.

Walking past the marketplace, noises and smells assaulted Sasuke's senses. Men and women and children were everywhere, talking and walking and laughing. They were wearing clothes of many colors and social classes. So Sasuke had no clue how he spotted her.

Something compelled him to stop. Whether it was instinct or training, or even pure damn luck, he stopped and turned his head to look down another market street. At first he thought it was just his mind playing tricks on him. But when she turned around, he couldn't deny it.

There was a flash of pink hair. Who else had pink hair? The girl turned around, her green eyes watching the market blankly. There was a man with her in a black cloak, and although it was missing red clouds, Sasuke had no doubt it was one of the Akatsuki there to watch her. The girl herself was dressed in plain brown trousers, a blue shirt that was slightly too big, and plain shoes. Her face from what he could see was blank, but when he caught a glimpse of her eyes, they were troubled. It was really her.

It was Sakura.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Sakura looked down at the clothes the vendor was selling. They were all plain and simple clothes, but that was what she had wanted. Kakuzu was with her, since he was the Akatsuki member who kept all the money. She had finally worked up the courage to complain in front of all the Akatsuki members that she was tired of wearing worn and beat up clothes they had gotten from who-knows-where.

Tobi, who agreed with anything she said, said that she should try shopping in the nearby village. But of course, the thought of going shopping horrified the male Akatsuki population to no end. Not even Sasori wanted to go, although Sakura preferred that he didn't come; it would have been embarrassing for her if men flirted with her right in front of Sasori. So Sakura didn't mind him.

Hidan told her that since Kakuzu was in charge of all the money that came into their organization, he should be the one to go with her, since he would just complain to her about spending money if she didn't take him. Sakura was pretty sure it was just Hidan's personal revenge against his partner for forcing him to cook that week, but she didn't complain. Either she brought Kakuzu along, or there would be no shopping trip.

So here she was, looking through the clothes of the marketplace, trying to find something that might fit her. She made sure Kakuzu wore something discreet that would cover all the strange markings, stitches, what-have-you that covered his body. Since he always covered his face, she didn't worry too much about that.

Actually, she found that the combination of his masked face and his creepy black eyes were very good for haggling. Kakuzu often intimidated the merchants so much that when Sakura and he left the vendor, the merchant would be left scratching his head wondering where the money had gone. With Kakuzu everything was at least half off!

Sakura tried not to giggle as the current merchant she was with stared frightened at Kakuzu's intimidating form, which towered over almost everyone in the market. Fingering the soft material of the red shirt she was looking at, Sakura turned to ask Kakuzu if she could get it. He had been surprisingly lenient about what she could buy.

"Kakuzu-san, could we get this one?" she asked, looking up. "Hey! Stop glaring at the merchant!"

Kakuzu turned his gaze towards Sakura, grunting.

"I want this one, if you please." She handed the shirt to Kakuzu, and then began to look at the trouser section while Kakuzu began haggling. She handed to more pairs of trousers to Kakuzu. All she had to do was find one more outfit, and she'd have enough clothes to go an entire week before having to do the laundry. Oh, but she'd need an extra outfit for laundry day. Two more outfits then.

She heard Kakuzu come up behind her. "Almost done?" he asked gruffly.

"Almost." She assured him as she turned to look at another clothes vendor.

"If you don't mind, Sakura-san, I have something I need to take care of." He told her. "I leave you here for a moment, but I'll be back in time to buy your things."

Sakura nodded without diverting her attention from the shop's wares. He set their bag next to her and walked off. Used to the strange dealings of the Akatsuki members, Sakura didn't mind. She picked out two more shirts and trousers from the vendor and even a new pair of shoes and socks to wear around the base.

"Oh!" she breathed when she saw a red dress that would have ended at her knees. It was a lot like the one she used to wear, with slits up the sides, ending around her mid thigh. It was made of a soft red fabric, lined in white with a short collar. All it was missing was the Haruno crest on the back, and it could have been identical to the one she had in Konoha.

Running her hand over it, Sakura added it to the pile of things she was going to buy.

"I'm back." Kakuzu said; a strange bag in his hands. Sakura wondered what he had bought, but decided that it might not be something she'd approve of, knowing the Akatsuki. So without mentioning his bag, Sakura handed what she wanted to buy over to Kakuzu and let him begin haggling.

By the time Kakuzu was done with the merchant, the poor man was left standing with his mouth open at the amount of money he had lost in their deal. Sakura let herself smile a bit. Glancing at the sky, she sighed and let herself revel in the freedom of being outside again.

"Someone is watching us." Kakuzu murmured as he came up next to her.

"I know." She said without looking away form the clouds. "Do you see them?"

"No." Kakuzu answered. "Too many people today. But we should leave."

Sakura's instincts were screaming at her, telling her that she should stay. But she was still a prisoner of the Akatsuki, technically at least. Not listening to Kakuzu was a bad idea.

A little reluctantly, she followed Kakuzu as he wove his way through the streets, taking many shortcuts Sakura would have never known were there had he not walked right through them. She would have never guessed that the Akatsuki knew the town so well. At some point she felt their follower loose track of them, and Kakuzu and Sakura left the town to go back to the base.

Her heart told her to go back. It was screaming for her to go back, actually. Something was telling her that she should have at least turned around to see the face of their pursuer. But it was too late now.

Sakura glanced back at the town. That chakra signature seemed… familiar. But she couldn't place it. Like it had been a long time since she was last in contact with it.

'_Is it just me or did I see a certain raven haired man as we were running away?' Inner Sakura asked._

But Sakura didn't know the answer to that question.

"Kakuzu! Wait!" she called. "We lost whoever it was! And I can't run break neck speed carrying these bags!"

The Akatsuki member stopped for a moment to abruptly take the bags from Sakura. "We need to keep moving."

Not giving her time to object, Kakuzu kept running. Grumbling to herself Sakura started running again. Although he did look funny running so seriously with shopping bags in his arms. Sakura laughed under her breath.

Back at the base Sakura went immediately upstairs to put away her clothes. Since her clothes from the trip into town were already dirty, Sakura threw them on the floor and slipped on her new dress. She sighed. It fit!

She stretched her legs a bit, still sore from running the two day trip from the village. The dress moved easily with her body, loose enough to allow movement while still fitting her form. And the slits on the sides of the skirt allowed her legs to move freely.

Sakura pulled her hair into a messy bun (it had grown past her collarbone in the months she had spent at the base) she then slipped on a pair of socks and padded down to the living room.

"You look nice." Sasori commented as he came up behind them. His sneaky hands quickly touched her leg where the slit in the fabric was and ran up the skin on her thigh. Sakura gasped at looked around to make sure they were alone.

"You." She growled, turning around and placing a kiss on his lips.

He smiled into their kiss. Then he gently pushed her away. "Tonight." He promised. "But not here."

Sakura pouted for a second, then smiled back at him. She turned just in time to hear footsteps coming from the corridor that led from the hidden entrance of the Akatsuki base. The door that separated the living quarters from the hallway and entrance opened, and in walked Itachi and Kisame.

"You're back!" Sakura exclaimed, running up to hug Kisame. "Where have you been all week? I was getting worried!"

Kisame chuckled. "I feel all warm inside knowing you were thinking of me. I am sad to tell you that I've spent all week holed up in a cave. As to what else I was doing, that's Akatsuki-only information. But in short, I was holed up in a cave."

"Poor Kisame." Sakura smiled gently.

"Thanks for worrying about me." Itachi said sarcastically as he moved out from behind Kisame.

"Patience, Itachi, I was going to get to you eventually." She laughed a little and walked over to him. "So how did the mission go for you?"

"First you're supposed to say how worried you were for me and how you missed me." Itachi said.

Sakura studied the stoic man in front of her. His face was as blank as ever, although maybe it was a bit softer than she remembered. And his eyes looked like they had a hint of amusement in them, but it was still hard to tell. But since his mouth wasn't in its permanent frown, Sakura guessed Itachi was in a good mood.

"I was so worried about you, looking out the window and keening your name." she rolled her eyes as she spoke with gentle sarcasm. "I missed your wide grin and energetic jokes so much."

"Now you're just mocking me." He said, lifting an eyebrow in something that Sakura ventured to call an actual expression.

"Look at that!" she gasped. "You do have facial expressions!"

Itachi rolled his eyes.

Sakura gasped louder, her mouth dropping open. "He rolls his eyes!"

"Enough mocking." He said with an almost-smile.

"I'm… not mocking…" she managed to say. "I really am… shocked. Kisame am I dreaming?"

Kisame chuckled. "Nope. Even the great Itachi Uchiha is capable of facial expressions, once in a blue moon."

"I didn't even know that he could." Sasori said, but still maintained his calm façade.

Sakura reached up and poked Itachi's face, making him stare at her. "Sakura-san, what do you think you're doing?" he asked curious.

"Uh… making sure your face is real. I guess." She mumbled absently, focused on his face. She began to stretch his cheeks. "Can you laugh?"

Itachi reached up and gently but firmly removed Sakura's hands from his cheeks. "Sakura-san, please snap out of it."

"Huh?" she seemed to come back to herself. "Oh. Yeah."

"Hey, you're wearing a new dress, Sakura-san!" Kisame noticed her attire.

Sakura smiled. "Kakuzu-san and I went shopping today."

Itachi and Kisame began to choke.

Alarmed, Sakura turned back to Itachi and began to pat his back. Sasori did the same to Kisame. Sasori smirked at Kisame while the shark man was to busy to notice. That was when Deidara walked in.

"Oh. They're back already, neh." He said. Deidara peered at the choking men. "Are they choking, neh?"

The blonde Akatsuki member saw Sasori's smirk and got the answer from that. Bending to watch Kisame, Deidara sealed his fate with one innocent sounding remark.

"Since Kisame's already a blue person, what color do you think he'll turn when he runs out of air, neh?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"Why you-!" Kisame cleared his throat a coupled time and stood up straight, taking in a few breaths. When he was better, he glared at Deidara.

"Come 'ere!" Kisame yelled as he launched himself at Deidara.

"Uh-oh. Someone's grumpy, neh?" Deidara smirked and ran off through the corridors of the base with the shark man in tow.

Sakura saw Kisame take out his sword and became alarmed. "He won't kill Deidara… right?"

Itachi finished coughing and began to clear his throat, but he still gripped her shoulder.

"Sasori, go get Itachi some water." Sakura ordered. She led Itachi to the couch. He sat down and cleared his throat again.

"Kisame would only seriously injure him." Itachi said as he accepted the water from Sasori. He sipped from the glass of water to hide his smile at Sakura's horrified face.

"You're joking right?" she asked him.

"No." Itachi and Sasori said. Sakura's mouth dropped open.

Itachi's mouth twitched in what could only be labeled as the famous Uchiha almost-smile. "Well you're around now to heal that sort of stuff. So don't be too worried."

"J-Just make sure I don't have to re-attach any limbs…" Sakura murmured, her face still shocked. Sasori and Itachi actually chuckled. Then Kisame walked back into the room, his sword re-sheathed.

"Lucky bastard escaped." Kisame muttered.

Sakura sighed in relief.

"What?" Kisame glanced at Sakura's face.

"Just happy that you didn't injure him." She smiled.

"Not_ yet_." Kisame growled. "Anyway, what's this about you and Kakuzu? On a freaking shopping trip?"

"I am curious as well." Itachi said, his eyes sparked in interest.

Sakura laughed. "It is exactly as it sounds. He and I went to get me some new clothes in the village west of here."

"No, I don't think you grasp how serious this is." Kisame said, sitting between Itachi and Sakura on the couch, facing her. "Kakuzu _never_ shops. He and shopping _do not_ go together. Kakuzu hates spending money!"

"Uh… Well we didn't spend a lot. He is _really effective_ in haggling!" She exclaimed, thinking of Kakuzu's intimidating appearance.

"I bet." Kisame laughed, standing up and heading o the kitchen. "So how were the dinners for the past week?"

Sasori smirked, which both Itachi and Kisame saw. They both turned to Sakura and waited expectantly for her answer. She smiled guiltily, thinking about what she did to Hidan.

"Well actually…" Sakura began just as Tobi walked in.

"Oh! Kisame-san and Itachi-san are back!" he whooped, all three men in the room watching the boy in exasperation.

"Tobi, how were the dinners last week?" Kisame asked him.

Tobi cackled. "Sakura beat Hidan's ass with a wooden spoon and forced him to cook the casserole!"

Itachi and Kisame stared at Sakura.

"A wooden spoon?" Itachi raised an eyebrow at her.

"A casserole?" Kisame tried not to explode with laughter.

Sakura blushed. Sasori laughed softly behind Itachi, and she promptly glared at him. The redhead just smiled calmly at her, not worried that she could punch him through a wall. Then Hidan walked into the room.

And everyone but Sakura burst out laughing.

"Not this shit again!" Hidan yelled, turning around and running out the room. Sakura tried to scold the Akatsuki members for giving Hidan a hard time, but she couldn't help but laugh a little herself. "Give him a break guys. At least it was edible!"

"It was edible?" Kisame stopped laughing and stared at Sakura.

"Well I wouldn't let him cook if I didn't think he could do it." She said.

Tobi raised his hand. "Tobi wants to try cooking too, Sakura-chan!"

"HELL NO!" Everyone yelled at him in horror. Sakura could already imagine the base going up in smoke. That boy wasn't going anywhere near the appliances!

"Sakura, don't let Kisame kill me, neh." Deidara walked up carefully behind Sakura as she sat on the couch, putting Sakura, Itachi, the couch, and Sasori between him and the shark man.

Kisame's hand went to his sword. "Kisame!" Sakura scolded.

"Aw, come on Sakura-san. Just one swing, at least?" Kisame begged.

"No!" she gasped.

Deidara cackled behind her. "The real power in the Akatsuki: Sakura-chan!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Don't goad Kisame, or I will let him take a swing."

"Yes Sakura." Deidara rolled his eyes.

"Hey, where'd Kakuzu go?" she asked, looking around.

Hidan walked in then. "Kakuzu locked himself in his room and is counting what's left over form your little shopping trip. I don't think he realized how much he spent on you until you guys got back."

"And he gets depressed about that sort of thing?" Sakura stared at them as they all nodded. "But it's money! The whole purpose is to spend it!"

"Only a girl would think that." Hidan muttered as the rest of the men agreed.

Sakura laughed. "Hey, I have a challenge for your, Kisame."

"Oh I love a challenge." The Kisame said, flexing his muscles. Hidan and Deidara rolled their eyes at the buff blue man.

Sakura smirked, her eyes glinting evilly. "You and Hidan have to cook dinner tonight."

Deidara burst out laughing at the shocked faces of Kisame and Hidan.

"Don't drag me into this! I've already cooked a dinner before; I'm done!" Hidan protested.

"Okay then." Sakura shrugged. "I don't blame you for being intimidated by Kisame, Hidan. Kisame has been cooking longer than you after all. He's bound to bee too good for you to compete with."

Hidan stood motionless, glaring at Sakura. "Damn… why am I falling for that?" he growled. "Fine. If Kisame agrees, I'll show you who the better cook is."

"You sound pretty confident there." Kisame laughed. "You think you can beat me? Fine! We'll have a cook-off!"

With that the two men commandeered the kitchen, kicking Tobi out when the masked man tried to butt in on their challenge. Itachi actually smirked as he watched them, picking up a book from the table to read. Deidara laughed behind Sakura.

"You really know how to manipulate a man." Deidara sounded impressed, leaning on the arm of the couch to bend over Sakura, who was laying on the couch with her feet on Itachi's lap. "Neh, this is going to be fun to watch."

Sakura leaned her head back to look up at Deidara. "Just don't piss off Kisame anymore, ok? He wanted to cut off one of your limbs."

"Neh, I guess you're right." Deidara leaned down over Sakura, grinning. "Pissing off Kisame is very hazardous to one's health."

"Pissing me off is hazardous to your health as well." Sasori growled as he sat in the chair nest to them. "So stop flirting with Sakura."

"Are we jealous Sasori?" Deidara teased, but Sakura could feel the testosterone levels rising.

"Deidara, we all know you're a flirt." Sakura said quickly, pretending to playfully push his face away from hers. She winked at Sasori, who nodded and went back to some drawings of the puppets he was currently building. At least Sasori wasn't the jealous type.

"You hurt my feelings, neh!" Deidara complained but moved away to watch Kisame and Hidan in the kitchen, dropping comments to infuriate the cooks. Hidan finally threw a knife at Deidara, but the dark blonde insisted on merely dodging the kitchenware and kept annoying the men.

And then much to the dismay of Kisame and Hidan, Tobi decided to join Deidara in harassing them.

"The situation over there seems to be getting a little dangerous." Sakura commented. Itachi and Sasori just grunted, both absorbed in their work. Sakura smiled and rolled her eyes. "Be right back."

Carefully removing her feet from Itachi's lap so as not to disturb the book in his hands, Sakura got up and went upstairs to find her own book. As she walked into her room, Sakura crouched to look under her bed, finding the book lying exactly where she left it. Grabbing it, Sakura headed back downstairs, dodged a couple knives aimed at Tobi or Deidara, and sat on the couch again.

Itachi lifted his arms without removing his eyes from his book while Sakura resettled her feet on his lap and leaned on the couch's arm._ Healing Jutsus: the Rare and Unexplained Vol. 4_… Sakura opened the book and began reading where she left off.

It was surprisingly calming- sitting in the living room and reading with Itachi and Sasori, while Kisame and Hidan attempted to cook while simultaneously trying to kill Tobi and Deidara. Once a knife embedded itself in the floor next to Sakura's position on the couch. Itachi and Sasori looked up angrily at the cooks while Sakura chucked the knife with deadly accuracy. The blade was then embedded in the wall next to Deidara's head. Deidara and Tobi gulped. So did Kisame and Hidan.

"Sorry Sakura-san!" they all called. Sakura shook her head and returned to her book. She felt Sasori's gaze on her, making sure the knife hadn't hurt her. Itachi gave the men in the kitchen the death glare, telling them that if that knife had hurt Sakura, they would have all paid with their lives.

It really was a good day in the Akatsuki base.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Sasuke cursed and punched the building next to him, leaving a nice sized hole in the stone. He had lost them! Dammit, if only Sakura had looked behind her to see who was following them. Just once!

He turned and ran back to where he had left Naruto.

"There you are! I was wondering where you had disappeared to!" Naruto said as he took another huge bite of the ramen bowl he held in his hand.

"I saw Sakura!" Sasuke said.

Naruto began to choke. "What? Where?"

Sasuke swore and shook his head. "They got away. There was an Akatsuki member with her, but I didn't recognize him. He must have sensed me watching him, because he suddenly dragged her out of the market."

"Where did he take her?"

"I lost them." Sasuke growled. "They used all kinds of short cuts and I eventually couldn't keep up."

Naruto clenched his fists. "We need to tell the others now! Let's go!"

Sasuke nodded and Naruto followed, still eating from his bowl of ramen.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"And you're sure it was Sakura?" Neji asked, his face remaining calm while everyone in the room stared at Sasuke in shock. Except for Shikamaru. He looked bored, as usual.

"Ever meet anyone else with pink hair?" Sasuke asked annoyed.

"Well I did meet this one girl with _reddish_-pink hair. Does that count?" Neji was rewarded with the sight of a vein pulsing on Sasuke's temple. He tried not to burst into maniacal laughter. Sometimes Sasuke made it too easy.

"This is serious Neji!" Sasuke growled.

"Yeah, this is serious, Neji." Shikamaru said with mock concern. "Naruto just ran out of ramen! Very serious, y'know."

"Are you _trying_ to piss me off?" Sasuke asked, almost astonished.

Neji and Shikamaru exchanged blank glances, but their eyes showed their amusement. They were both liking this side of Sasuke. He was so easy to push.

Sasuke took an offensive step towards them. Neji and Shikamaru narrowed their eyes and stood up defensively. Naruto looked alarmed.

"Uh, guys?" Naruto seemed to have been clueless of the pissing match that had passed between the guys.

Just then Ino and Hinata entered the room, just coming from their room. The girls quickly assessed the situation and exchanged alarmed glances. Ino cursed.

"You baka!" she yelled as she stepped between Sasuke and Shikamaru, arm shooting out and yanking Shikamaru's pineapple.

"Oi! Troublesome woman, what was that for?" Shikamaru glared at Ino.

Hinata stepped in front of Neji, her unusually angry eyes made Neji doubt his ability to live through the next five minutes. Those thoughts shocked Neji just as much as when Hinata quickly grabbed his hair and pulled, hard.

"What do you think you're doing?" Neji yelled when Hinata didn't let go of his hair.

Hinata glared at Neji. "You were being an ass again, weren't you?"

Ino yanked Shikamaru's pineapple ponytail again. "And you're always an ass, but what did you say this time?"

"Why isn't Sasuke in trouble?" Shikamaru groaned.

"I wasn't being an ass!" Neji said defensively, trying to get Hinata to let go, but she refused.

"You never realize when your being an ass unless you say you _weren't_ being an ass!" Hinata said, her soft voice squeaked as she tried to sound stern. It would have been comical to Neji if she didn't have him by his hair.

Sasuke allowed himself a smug smile, watching Neji over Hinata's head. Hinata's voice was high when she was angry. Neji glared at him, and received another yank from Hinata.

"Don't look at Sasuke, look at me!" she said.

"Sasuke will be in trouble once we are done with you two!" Ino said to Shikamaru, who groaned.

Neji glared at Hinata. "Who are you and what have you done with Hinata?"

"She left when she saw that you were picking a fight with the guy responsible for helping us find Sakura." She put the fist that wasn't holding Neji's hair on her hip in an attempt to seem more dangerous. But combined with her naturally childish face and her short height, she looked more like a pissed pixie.

_Kind of… cute._ Neji thought to his horror.

"Shikamaru, what did you say to Sasuke?" Ino demanded.

"Woman, if you don't gerroff me I ain't sayin' a thing!" Shikamaru said through clenched teeth. Ino's grip wasn't nearly as gentle as Hinata's. At least Hinata lessened her grip on Neji when she wasn't yanking his hair.

Ino ignored him and glared.

"I'll answer for you two." Sasuke said, smirking at the two doomed men. Naruto's mouth had fallen open, showing a disgusting mix of noodles and meat. He was had seen a pissed off Ino many times, but watching Hinata- she was like a force of nature that was peaceful, but was fierce when roused. Kunoichis really were probably the most dangerous creatures in the world.

"Please explain, Sasuke." Ino growled without breaking her gaze with Shikamaru. Neji and Shikamaru sweat dropped. They could only imagined that the girls wouldn't permanently injure them after they heard how Shikamaru and Neji had acted.

The two ninjas got their answer after Sasuke relayed what had happened to the girls. Hinata and Ino were shocked about the sighting of Sakura, then their faces darkened when they heard how Shikamaru and Neji had acted. It shouldn't have been possible, but Ino's hand tightened on the pineapple.

Hinata's eyes reverted to the Byakugan state. Neji grew alarmed.

"Y-You…." Hinata's voice actually trembled with rage. "You. Disrespected. Sakura."

Ino didn't even have to say anything, her eyes promising Shikamaru a slow and painful death.

"This is going to be troublesome." He winced.

"Hinata?" Neji asked nervously. "Put your Byakugan away and take a _deep_ breath."

Sasuke couldn't stop smirking. Naruto's mouth would have stayed permanently open if a bunch of semi-chewed ramen hadn't fallen into his lap, making an embarrassing stain. He cursed softly and wiped his crotch, closing his mouth. But his attention was still focused on the scary women in the room.

"I-Ino…" Hinata's stutters were completely opposite of her usually nervous stutters. These were full of anger. "On three?"

"Sure." Ino said with an ominous smile. Neji and Shikamaru gulped and glanced at each other.

"One."

"Two."

"Three!"

Neji and Shikamaru braced for impact. There was a loud smack. Someone landed on the wall behind him.

Neji and Shikamaru opened their eyes to stare at Sasuke. The Uchiha had a handprint on each side of his face. Their mouths dropped open.

"Nice!" Both Shikamaru and Neji said to the girls just as they felt handprints imprinting themselves on their own faces. Neji and Shikamaru landed on their butts in shock. They were both caught off guard. By women they had known their whole lives.

Hinata and Ino gazed at the wreck around them. They had both successfully hit their marks: Sasuke, Neji, and Shikamaru. All three men were sitting on their asses and looking up in shock and anger. Ino smirked. Hinata suddenly felt horrible.

"You. Are. All. Idiots!" Ino yelled at them.

Naruto was howling with laughter against the wall.

"And you should know to behave better!" Hinata scolded Neji. "Sasuke or Shikamaru I understand, but you!"

"I take offense to that." Sasuke muttered, wincing as the handprints on his cheeks punished him.

Shikamaru continued to stare up at the blonde fury in front of him. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" he yelled.

"You were acting like an ass." Ino began counting on her fingers. "Neji was acting like an ass. Add those two things together and we knew that Sasuke had to have been acting like an ass as well. So we slapped all of you."

"Neji started it." Sasuke muttered. Neji lurched to his feet towards Sasuke but Hinata surprised Neji by pushing him back onto his butt.

"But we finished it!" Hinata squeaked angrily, glaring at Neji.

Naruto was laughing so hard that he couldn't make a sound. His face was contorted in a mixture of glee and pain. Ino would have hit him if she weren't preoccupied deciding how she was going to further punish Shikamaru.

There was a tense silence, interrupted by one of the inn's workers knocking on the door and asking what the cause of the disturbance was. After Hinata assured the man that they would be quiet and apologized for disrupting the other guests, the man left. She turned and shared a look with Ino.

"Are you guys done pissing on each other?" Ino asked them with a tight voice. "You idiots can finish this once Sakura is safe."

That sobered everyone up.

"We're done." Neji and Shikamaru muttered apologetically.

Hinata and Ino rounded on Sasuke, looming over him dangerously. He glared up at them defiantly. "I'm done."

"Good." Ino said, clapping her hands. "Shikamaru?"

He sighed and sat up. "Now, we now know Sakura is in the area; that is very, very good news. But we all need to pack for the trip into the woods tomorrow, so we should start now so that we have time to get some rest."

Ino and Hinata waited expectantly by the door.

"What?" Shikamaru asked, Neji's eyes asking the same question.

"You don't honestly think we are going to leave you and Neji in here with Sasuke?" Hinata asked, her voice soft again.

Shikamaru grumbled and followed Neji out the door. Hinata cast an apologetic smile at Sasuke while Ino, who was still pissed, slammed the door close. Sasuke placed his fingers on his cheeks and winced.

"Oi, Naruto." He said, glancing at the helpless blonde, who was still gasping for air. Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I hope you suffocate."

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"Was all that really necessary?" Neji asked Hinata, wincing at the pain he got from moving his mouth.

"Y-You k-kinda deserved it…" Hinata said, dipping her head down. "I'm s-sorry if I h-hit you too hard!"

"Psh, you can never hit a blockhead too hard!" Ino told her comfortingly.

"Where the hell did you learn to hit like that?" Neji asked, amazed.

Ino and Hinata smiled. "Sakura."

"I thought you always hit like that. Maybe I'm just becoming immune. God I hope so." Shikamaru muttered. Ino rolled her eyes.

"Uh… I have to say… good job." Neji told Hinata, the compliment hard for him to say for some reason.

"Whaaaa?" Hinata looked back up and stared at Neji.

Neji glanced up to see that Shikamaru and Ino were ignoring him and Hinata. He leaned down to smile at Hinata. "You showed some real guts back there. Good job. You didn't even stutter. Much."

Hinata blushed. "U-Um… thanks!"

Ino and Shikamaru stood in front of each other, glaring.

"Did you have to yank so hard?" he accused.

"How else am I supposed to get your attention?" she placed her hands on her hips.

"I don't know, maybe a 'Hey Shika!' or something! Ya didn't have to go pulling my hair out!"

"Pineapple…" Ino muttered.

"What?" Shikamaru didn't quite hear what she had muttered.

"Look, you will have plenty of time to piss off Sasuke once we get back to the village!" she said angrily. "Until then, I would appreciate it if you focused on why we are here! Sakura!"

Shikamaru rubbed his face. "Woman… Troublesome…"

"I don't want to hear that word!" she snapped. "Now go to your room before I get pissed at you again."

"And what you are now isn't pissed?" he asked her, frustrated. "And you can't just tell me to go to my room!"

"Why you-"

"Ino!" Hinata put her hand on Ino's shoulder. "C-Calm down. We n-need to p-pack now."

Ino calmed down and glanced at Hinata, the Hyuuga girl's presence flooding Ino with serenity. "Fine." Ino cast one last glare at Shikamaru, then turned to enter her room, slamming the door in his face.

Shikamaru sighed and grumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"You two have a very dysfunctional relationship." Neji stated.

"Shut up Hyuuga." Shikamaru sighed.

Neji chuckled as he opened the door to their room and let Shikamaru walk in before him.. "Y'know, if I didn't know any better, I would say you were actually nervous about ever making a move on her."

Shikamaru glanced bored at Neji, but saw Neji had activated his Byakugan.

"What are you doing?" he asked the Hyuuga.

"Checking your chakra levels." He said with a smug look as he closed the door to their room.

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

Neji smirked. "I can tell that your heart skipped a beat when I mentioned you making a move on Ino. You chakra levels jumped. Just like they are now."

"That's unfair." Shikamaru glared at the Byakugan.

Neji laughed and deactivated it. "Even without the Byakugan I can see there is something between you two. Why don't you make a move on her already?"

Shikamaru glared and walked to his half of the room and began to take off his shoes. "None of your business. There is nothing going on."

Neji widened his eyes. "You think she is too good for you."

"No I don't." Shikamaru snapped.

"It wasn't a question." Neji pointed out as he began to pack his things.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Ino angrily stuffed her clothes into their bag, muttering under her breath about idiotic pineapple assholes.

"Ino!" Hinata's voice finally permeated the haze of rage surrounding Ino. The platinum blonde looked up. "You need to fold your clothes if their going to fit in there."

Hinata gently took the clothes out of Ino's bag and began to fold them for her. Ino sighed and sat on the floor. Hinata glanced at her but waited for Ino to say what was on her mind.

"Hinata." Ino sighed.

"Yes?" Hinata asked serenely.

"Boys are dumb." Ino stated.

Hinata chuckled lightly. "Yes, they are, aren't they?"

"You sound as if you're experienced." Ino laughed. "But I know you're not."

"No." Hinata said. "But I do observe. Although you wouldn't know it with the way I stutter."

"You don't stutter unless you're nervous." Ino pointed out.

"And I'm always nervous unless I'm with you or-" Hinata's voice faltered.

"Sakura." Ino whispered.

Hinata nodded and kept folding the clothes. Ino leaned her head on the end of the bed and looked up at the blue haired kunoichi. It was too bad so few people knew how brave Hinata could be.

"Anyway." Ino said, trying to break the sad atmosphere. "Boys are idiots. Ugh! Why is Shikamaru always getting himself into those kinds of situations? One would think he'd be too lazy to!"

Hinata laughed softly. "Well from what I've seen, it seems Shikamaru is quite cocky when he bothers to be anything other than being lazy."

"Ha!" Ino laughed. "That's the perfect way to put it!"

Hinata cast her a smile. "Maybe you should drop a few more hints, Ino."

Ino looked up at Hinata in confusion. "HUH?"

"Oh come on." Hinata rolled her eyes. "He is the only guy you have ever allowed into your life. _And_ you're the only girl he bothers to recognize."

Ino stared at Hinata. Horror dawned on her face. "Oh no. No, no… Just … NO!" her arms began to wave back and forth in desperation.

Hinata laughed. "I don't even need to activate my Byakugan to see it."

Ino glared. "We end this conversation. Now!"

"When Sakura comes back, she and I will _both_ have a conversation about this!" Hinata smiled softly, looking too innocent. Her eyes showed determination when she mentioned Sakura.

Ino smiled. The look in Hinata's eyes promised that they would get Sakura back. They also promised a very daunting conversation in the future. Ino cringed at the thought of Sakura's reaction once Hinata got a hold of her.

No one realized it, but Hinata was a great source of gossip. Since she was so quiet all the time, no one ever watched what they said in front of her. She knew things about every ninja in the Leaf village. Thankfully, she was also careful about what she said, and would always keep her friends' secrets.

"Hinata?" Ino looked at her.

"Hm?" Hinata had moved to pack her own bag.

Ino placed her bag near her bed where she could grab it in the morning. "Has anyone ever told you how scary you can be sometimes?"

The shyest girl in the village laughed evilly. "I'll take that as a compliment."

A mischievous thought struck Ino. Revenge… Muwahaha.

"Soooo…" Ino smiled too kindly at Hinata. The Hyuuga was immediately alarmed. Ino was definitely up to something when she used that voice.

"I-Ino?" she asked politely.

"What is your take on Neji?" Ino asked innocently.

Hinata began to cough profusely. Ino grinned and tried not to cackle, masking her face into an innocent façade when Hinata looked back at her. The blue haired kunoichi cleared her throat.

"Um… H-He's treating me nicer than h-he used to… w-why?" Hinata didn't know what Ino had wanted her to say, but something was up with her blonde friend.

"I wonder what he looks like without his shirt on…" Ino continued to muse innocently.

A very sinful image appeared in Hinata's mind and she squeaked.

"Oh wait!" Ino smirked. "Without a shirt on _after_ a good practice on the training grounds… Panting, covered in sweat, light reflecting off his _rippling abs_, muscles straining… Oh even _I_ would love to touch that!"

Hinata screamed and covered her eyes, but the sinful image was burned in her mind. The guys across the hall must have heard Hinata's scream because Ino could hear them scramble to open the door and get to the girls' room.

"Hinata, are you okay?" Neji swung the door open, looking as if he just came out of the shower. Shikamaru was behind him as well, although he was fully dressed.

Neji, on the other hand, had only his pants on with his towel around his neck, no shirt, covered in drops of water and panting. Looking exactly like the image in Hinata's mind. Ino howled with laughter at what happened next.

"_Panting, covered in sweat, light reflecting off his rippling abs, muscles straining…"_ _Ino's voice echoed…_ The moment Hinata saw Neji, with that image still burned in her mind, she turned bright neon red.

Then promptly fainted.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

* * *

><p><strong>Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! Oh I AM evil. Muwahahahaha! Oh my stomach hurt so badly when I wasa writing that last part.<strong>

**NO NEJIHINA FLAMES! This is my story and I will write what I want. I will find you if you flame me just for that. I WILL FIND YOU. If you don't like it, just ignore it or enjoy it for the story that it is and not what the characters are in the cartoon.**

**Please review~ Another announcement: while working on my next story it went form starting off as a Sasusaku to a NejiSaku. The file has been put away for now, but if any of you would like to see a NejiSakura story from me, please tell me and I will put it out there for you! Thanks! :3**


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter Nine: Anniversary_

The next morning the Konoha shinobi headed out east towards the suggested location of the Akatsuki base. Neji and Shikamaru took the lead, as they always seemed to do on this mission. Ino and Hinata ran in the middle, keeping Sasuke away from Shikamaru and Neji. There was still tension between the three. And of course, Naruto didn't notice at all.

As they ran at breakneck speed towards their location, Ino's mind wandered to the previous night and smirked. Hinata glanced at Ino and blush profusely. Ino laughed evilly under her breath.

"It's _not funny_." Hinata squeaked, as her voice always did when she was trying to sound stern.

That only made Ino giggle even more, which was quite painful to do while still running. But she couldn't help it. The night before was a vivid memory, hilarious to Ino and embarrassing to Hinata. Ino relived the moment.

_Flashback_

"Hinata, are you okay?" Neji swung the door open, looking as if he just came out of the shower. Shikamaru was behind him as well, although he was fully dressed.

Neji, on the other hand, had only his pants on with his towel around his neck, no shirt, covered in drops of water and panting. Looking exactly like the image in Hinata's mind. Ino howled with laughter at what happened next.

Hinata took one look at Neji and fainted, her face like a tomato.

Ino laughed even harder, clutching her stomach and leaning against the bed while she sat on the floor. Tears had already gathered in the corner of her eyes. She glanced up and saw Shikamaru glaring at her suspiciously.

"What did you do, Ino?" Shikamaru's sigh was stern.

Ino opened her mouth but she couldn't seem to get enough breath into her to speak. She wheezed and laughed, but finally gave up and continued laugh, although now not as maniacally as before. Shikamaru muttered about troublesome blondes going insane.

Neji, meanwhile, had rushed over to Hinata. He kneeled over her with a worried expression. Ino smothered her mouth and forced her laughs down.

"What happened?" Neji asked seriously, looking as if Hinata was injured.

'Her mind might be permanently injured.' Ino's thoughts cackled.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes as Ino went into another series of giggles before she was able to respond. "Oh, nothing serious. I was just… playing a prank, you could say… pffft!"

Neji glanced sternly at Ino. "Does this have something to do with how she looked at me and suddenly fainted?"

Ino smirked. "My lips are sealed." She said, refusing to say more.

Neji stared at her, confused but unwilling to admit it. Ino marveled at how dumb men could be. If any other girl had seen Hinata's reaction without knowing the situation, she would have immediately guessed the answer.

Neji sighed and picked up Hinata, putting the blue haired waif on her bed. Ino prayed for Hinata to wake up and see her situation and faint again. This night was turning out to be entertaining.

And apparently the gods were in her favor.

Hinata's eyes snapped open and focused for on Neji. "W-What…" Hinata's eyes widened as she seemed to realize Neji was carrying her bridal style to her bed. The poor girl let out a strangled scream and fainted again.

"Hahahahahaha!" Ino curled up on the floor as the laughter hit her even harder. Now tears were definitely running down her face. Shikamaru glanced at her worriedly, probably wondering if the girl needed help.

Neji placed Hinata on her bed and turned back to Ino. "What was all that about?"

Ino held up a finger as the laughter past. "N-Nothing! Pffft!"

"That was the worst lie you have ever told." Shikamaru stated.

"Aw but you love me anyway." Ino cast a quick smile at him before turning to Neji, not seeing the slight color on Shikamaru's face. "Well, we appreciate your concern, but really, everything here is fine!"

The boys looked at Ino skeptically. Neji and Shikamaru both shook their heads and Neji turned to leave. Ino smirked.

"Oh Neeeejiii…" she called sweetly. He turned to look at her suspiciously. "Don't forget to take your towel!"

Neji lifted an eyebrow at her but bent to pick up the towel. Ino savored the sight of that boy's abs. Man, Hinata needed to learn how to make a move. Even Ino couldn't ignore _that_.

'What would Shikamaru look like after a shower? Wet and shirtless?' Ino's thoughts surprised her. 'With pants on, of course.' She assured herself. Ino refused to let her mind wonder about the situation _without_ pants.

Shikamaru sighed behind her. Ino turned back to him, turning away from the door. She fell into her usual arrogant stance, hip cocked, hands on her hips, chin high.

"What?" she asked him.

"You're a troublesome woman." He said without bothering to mutter.

Ino grinned. "That's why you love me." She teased.

"Stop saying that!" Shikamaru said.

She blinked. That was an odd reaction from him. Normally when she said that he would just grunt or roll his eyes. Did it bother him that much?

"Does saying that bother you, Shikamaru?" she asked, using his name to keep his eyes from looking away from her. Ino's fingers tightened on her hips.

"No." he muttered, still glancing away.

Ino sighed. "I don't know what your problem is, but let's not get into a fight right now, okay?"

Shikamaru grunted and left the room.

_End Flashback_

Ino frowned as she reviewed that moment. Her girl senses were tingling. The way he was acting could been taken as… But no. No way. Ino never thought that Shikamaru would stay single all his life, but just thinking about him having romantic thoughts was strange.

Shaking her head, Ino smiled at herself. She had to be imagining things. First those thoughts about Shikamaru shirtless, and now she was imagining him giving off signs of… _a crush_. Shikamaru just didn't have crushes. It was… not him!

Hinata's hand touched her shoulder and Ino glanced at her. Her eyes questioned Ino what was bothering her, but Ino smiled. '_Later_.' Ino mouthed. Hinata nodded and they went back to running.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Shikamaru glanced at Neji and nodded. Shikamaru fell behind and let Neji take the lead, the Hyuuga activating his Byakugan and scanning the area as they kept running. Shikamaru glanced behind and signaled Sasuke, but his eyes lingered for a moment on Ino, who was looking at Hinata at the moment.

Sasuke sped up and caught up to Shikamaru.

"Sasuke," Shikamaru ordered. "You and Neji take the lead. Scan the area with your Sharingan. We're nearing the enemy territory. Look out for traps, or worse, any scouts."

Sasuke nodded and caught up to Neji. The two icicles ignored each other as they took the lead. Naruto watched Sasuke with a blank face. Shikamaru wondered what he was thinking about. Then Shikamaru glanced at Ino again, his mind going back to the previous night.

_Flashback_

Shikamaru sighed as he heard Ino close the door behind him. He walked across the hall where Neji had opened the door for him. Muttering a thanks, Shikamaru entered his room and flopped onto his bed.

"Girl trouble?" Neji asked.

Shikamaru didn't answer for a moment, surprised that Neji would be concerned. "All women are troublesome." He muttered.

He didn't have to look to know that Neji had smirked. "I think it's mostly Ino. I don't know how you live with a woman like that on your team."

Shikamaru was surprised to feel a pang of anger at Neji for speaking about Ino in that way, although Shikamaru had to agree. Sometimes he wondered how he lived with Ino. Well he didn't actually _live_ with Ino… _But what if he did…_

Shikamaru shook his head. Weird thoughts. Just like the ones he'd had when he was in the room with her._ "You know you love me…" _She had said. Those words did something to him. Gods, women made life so troublesome.

"Maybe you should just admit it to yourself." Neji interrupted his thoughts.

"Admit what?" Shikamaru asked with a yawn.

Neji walked to his bed and began to continue packing his things. Earlier, Neji had just gotten out of the shower and had begun packing when they heard the quiet scream in the girls' room. Now Neji was finishing packing; Shikamaru had already finished earlier.

"Maybe you should just admit that you're attracted to her." Neji said it so damn calmly that Shikamaru's mind had to go over what he'd said a couple times before understanding.

"What?" Shikamaru scoffed. "I am not _attracted_. It's _Ino_!"

"So?" Neji asked him, glancing at Shikamaru. "Take a look at her. She's not the girl you trained with anymore. She's a pretty woman that many men will want."

"I know." Shikamaru said in a flat voice.

He heard Neji stop moving and Shikamaru turned his head to find the man studying him with those blank cream eyes of his. "What?" Shikamaru asked.

"You… You think she's too good for you." Neji stated for the second time that night.

Shikamaru bristled. "For the last time- I don't know what you're talking about."

Neji gave him an exasperated look. "Really?" his question was flat, sounding more like a statement.

"What do you want me to say?" Shikamaru felt frustration rising in him and he pushed it back down, keeping his voice lazy. But his eyes had narrowed "Do you want me to confess love? Go all emotional? Pretend that this talk has touched my heart and that I know want to run into her room and kiss her?"

"So you want to kiss her?" Neji turned Shikamaru's words back on him.

Shikamaru glared. "I was speaking figuratively."

"So figuratively speaking… you're confessing your love for Ino; this talk has touched your heart, and now you want to kiss her?" There was the faintest sign of a smirk on the bastard's face.

Shikamaru scowled. "This conversation is over."

Neji allowed himself a small smile. "Even if you didn't deserve her… what if she deserved you?"

Shikamaru didn't answer and turned his back on Neji, going to sleep listening to Neji finish packing. He didn't love Ino. They were just friends. Comrades. Love had nothing to do with it.

_End Flashback_

Shikamaru ran beside Naruto now; Sasuke and he had traded their places and now Shikamaru was in the back. But his eyes had been glued to the platinum blonde running in front of him. His thoughts were full of 'what ifs'… as he watched her.

Maybe… when they got back to Konoha. Maybe he could test out these feelings he was having. See where they got him. Hopefully it wouldn't end with Ino throwing him into the river.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

They had set up camp just an hours travel away from the mountain that was the supposed Akatsuki base. The Leaf ninja didn't dare get any closer to the mountain. The air around the camp was energized, they were close.

Shikamaru and Neji sat outside Shikamaru's tent to plan and strategize as Ino and Hinata began to cook the ready-made meals they had brought.

Naruto sat on a tree limb and stared at the mountain in the distance, holding an abandoned headband in his hands. He glanced at the metal part of the headband, cleaned of all the grime that it had collected the months it had been hung on that tree. The symbol of Konoha was engraved proudly on the headband, no large scratch through the middle that would symbolize a rogue.

"What are you thinking?" Sasuke asked as he walked across the tree limb with ease.

"Isn't that what I'm supposed to ask you?" Naruto said.

Sasuke sat down next to Naruto, the same air of anger radiating off him.

"What?" Naruto narrowed his eyes, knowing that Sasuke had come because he wanted to say something.

"You were supposed to keep her protected." Sasuke said accusingly.

Naruto glared. "Like you ever cared for her!"

"If she got close to me then my enemies and the enemies of my clan would be able to use her against me!" Sasuke said defensively.

"You didn't have to break her heart!" Naruto hissed.

Sasuke glared but turned to glare at the mountain, keeping his anger in check. Breathing evenly, he lowered his voice. "I didn't realize…"

"Of course not." Naruto snapped. "You are a selfish and arrogant bastard. The only thing you've ever been concerned about is your Uchiha name. Your pride. And when you lose something, you blame it on everyone but yourself!"

Sasuke glared dangerously at Naruto. "Watch what you're about to say." He warned.

"Let me remind you that life goes on, Sasuke." Naruto said. "I have lost many friends but life still goes on. And you must keep living when the others die, or they die for nothing. You are lucky to be alive, Sasuke. So go ahead and live a life."

Naruto jumped down from the tree, leaving Sakura's head band next to Sasuke. The Uchiha glanced down at the headband, his face unreadable as he picked it up. His thumb felt the engraved Konoha symbol on the cool metal surface.

Naruto was right, of course. Not that Sasuke would ever admit that. He still had his pride.

'_And how long will that keep you alive?'_ an annoying voice said quietly in his mind.

Sasuke didn't want to think about that. But the thoughts forced themselves in his head. What if he was wrong? What if everything was for nothing? What if… none of this had ever happened? If he had lived life as a normal Uchiha boy, with no murdered family or rampaging brother. What would his life have been like?

'_You wouldn't be covered in the blood of innocents.'_ The voice whispered.

"No one is innocent." Sasuke murmured.

'_Not even Sakura? Does that mean she deserves to die?'_

NO! Sasuke clenched the headband. She didn't deserve to be held by the Akatsuki. Never Sakura. As much as Sasuke had tried to cut his ties with Konoha, it would always be the only home he had ever had. And the people within it. It was a special place for him, no matter how much he ever denied it.

He would bring Sakura home. After that, he didn't know. Sasuke could escape Konoha's clutches if he didn't wait after Sakura's rescue. If he left immediately. But he wasn't sure if he could do it again.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Sakura's eyes fluttered open. In the gloom of the room, she glanced down and saw his calm, timeless face. His skin was uncommonly smooth as she brushed her fingers along his jaw line and ran them through his hair.

'I can't afford to fall in love…' she thought sadly as her fingers entwined themselves in beautiful dark scarlet hair.

'_It's too late for that.' Inner Sakura said quietly._

Sakura shook her head and laid it back down on Sasori's muscular chest, her left hand tracing the indentions of his abs while her right arm curled underneath him to hold him closer to her. Under her ear Sakura heard the thump of Sasori's heart. It made her own heart flutter. The beat was strong and steady. As if the heart was still celebrating its rebirth.

She heard movements downstairs. Other members of the Akatsuki were awake. But Sakura didn't feel like seeing them today. She was happy just to stay here. To keep her mind blank and let her mind wander…

Konoha.

'Dammit!' she thought angrily. 'Just once can they stop haunting my mind! Let me pretend this is a perfect life, just for once!'

Her arms tightened around Sasori's chest. Just once… But she had never stopped thinking of Konoha, no matter how much time she had spent with the Akatsuki. Sakura was unable to stop the tear that escaped.

It would be the first of many before all this was over. She was sure of it.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Sasori kept his eyes shut has he felt Sakura moving around in bed. He loved the way her strong arms clung to him as if he was her reason for living. The gods knew she was _his_ reason for living.

He smiled when he felt her put her head against his chest and listen to his heart beat. It beat for her. Sasori loved how calm they were together. He was an impatient man, but her love was patient and calm, and it settled over is dark soul like a gentle light. By the gods; he knew he didn't deserve this.

None of them did, he thought, thinking of the other Akatsuki members. When Sakura wasn't in the room, it seemed so much darker. She really livened up the place. Whether she realized it or not, Sakura had wormed her way into the hearts of the Akatsuki, even if they were soulless murderers.

None of them would ever stop being the criminals that they were, nor would they ever regret their actions. But at least Sakura could make them feel human for a while, if only for a moment. Whether it was reading a book with Itachi or cooking with Kisame or even discussing sales with Kakuzu (shocking right?), Sakura would always be welcomed in the Akatsuki, if she ever had the choice.

The Leader, of course, disapproved wholeheartedly. He said they were all acting like a bunch of love struck puppies. Deidara would just flip the Leader off and Hidan would call him a prick. And Sasori, of course, would observe in a calm and cold manner, letting his disapproval of the Leader's words permeate the air. He knew the only reason that the Leader hadn't gotten rid of Sakura by now was because of the fondness the members had for Sakura. Particularly Sasori and Kakuzu, since they were the oldest members, and Pein couldn't afford to piss off his oldest and most respected allies.

Sasori frowned when he felt something wet on his chest. A tear. Sakura.

He moved slightly, letting her know he was awake. She moved her head up to look at him, her eyes clear, as if the tear was nothing of consequence. Sasori knew her better by now.

Moving his hand away from her back, he lifted it to wipe her cheek where one lone trail had been blazed. He said nothing, knowing what she was thinking about.

He opened his arms and Sakura fell into him. His girl didn't begin to cry or sob. Instead she just laid in his arms and shuddered for a couple seconds, the longing and homesickness and grief evident on her face. But there were no tears.

Which somehow made it so much worse.

They hadn't said a word in all that time, and Sasori was amazed at how easily he could understand just what she needed. But the pain. Oh the pain. He saw it in her face, in her eyes, in the way that she clung to him as if she were drowning. And maybe she was. On the inside.

"Shhh…" he whispered. As he did she let out a small cry and her body went limp in his arms. Sasori glanced at her worriedly.

Sakura stared up at him. Her eyes were bleak, yet still just as green as the forests of Konoha. But to Sasori's horror, he saw the fire in her lessen. That beautiful light that flamed in her eyes with such ferocity flickered for a moment. It made his heart stop.

"Sakura…" he whispered.

She brought her hands up and cupped his face. Her fingers wove slowly through his hair and her thumbs ran along his jaw and his cheekbones. She bent his head down and kissed him.

"Thank you…" she whispered. "I'm fine now."

"No you're not." He said.

She smiled sadly, the sight heart wrenching. "Then let's just pretend I am."

Sasori shook his head but kissed her forehead. She had told him that when she was younger she had been teased for having a large forehead. It sounded so stupid to him. She had obviously grown into it. Sasori placed his forehead against hers and breathed her in. He heard her inhaling him as well.

"I enjoyed last night." She said softly and luxuriously.

Sasori stroked the smooth skin of her back and down along her thigh. She hummed and he saw the fire within her brighten. His lips moved to an ear.

"You already want more?" she gasped, surprised. She knew Sasori wasn't a morning person.

He chuckled, and it felt good. He would laugh only for her. Trailing kisses down her neck Sasori sighed. "Always."

At some point they finished and made their way downstairs. Sakura felt more alive after Sasori reminded her of his feelings. He had gone downstairs before her; since she took more time going to her room and cleaning up to get ready for the day.

Downstairs Sakura found herself being ushered by Tobi towards the table as soon as she stepped away from the stairwell.

"Tobi?" she asked. "What's going on?"

He didn't reply, just led her… scratch that- _dragged_ her in a very excited manner towards the dining table. She was plopped down at the table and he skipped away. Sakura's thoughts were still too lazy from that morning to comprehend what was going on. Was he drunk or something?

Suddenly a plate of French toast, eggs, and bacon was plopped down in front of her. Sakura looked up in surprise. Kisame had a sharp toothy grin as he set down a smaller plate with sausage and hash browns. She was confused.

"Did I miss some important date?" she asked them as all the Akatsuki members were suddenly sitting around the table with her with equally delicious breakfasts.

They were all smiling mischievously. Well… If it was possible for Kakuzu to smile… and if that was more than a smirk on Itachi's face… and Tobi was still wearing his mask…

Okay scratch that!

There was an air of mischievousness practically charging the air around the table as they all watched her expectantly. Sasori's mouth twitched in what could be loosely called his public smile. And Kakuzu wasn't really smiling, just sort of… watching in approval with more than his usual evil aura.

"It's our four month anniversary!" Tobi cried, his hands in the air as he did some kind of… wiggle dance/jig thing that was surprisingly disturbing.

Sakura looked alarmed. What?

"Baka!" Deidara snapped as Zetsu grabbed Tobi and forced him to stop and sit.

"Um… what?" Sakura asked.

"Confused?" Itachi asked lightly in an almost bored voice that he always used. But his eyes held a glimmer of humor.

Sakura watched him suspiciously. That look in his eyes was bad news.

"Maybe your mind is just tired. Have you been getting enough sleep, Sakura-san?" he asked wickedly, his eyes knowingly flicking towards Sasori.

Sakura glared at him in horror and tried not to blush. She had suspected Itachi might guess that there was something between her and Sasori, and he just confirmed it. But he had said it in a teasing way, so at least it wasn't all bad.

But then the bastard laughed!

"Itachi!" she growled.

"Do you like the food?" Hidan interrupted.

Sakura stopped and glanced at him. Then glanced in his direction again. And again. Hidan and Kisame were actually sitting next to each other without trying to kill each other. Sakura took some more bites of the food to keep herself from saying something stupid.

"It's delicious!" she said truthfully, her eyes wide.

Kisame and Hidan grinned. "We both made breakfast today!" they told her.

Sakura choked. "And you're both unharmed?"

They nodded.

Dear gods. Was this backwards day? Opposite day? Wonderland? Should she expect them to burst out laughing and reveal some hidden camera scheme?

"Did I miss something?" she asked aloud.

"It's your four month anniversary." Deidara smiled at her with his cocky grin. "You have been an honorary guest of the Akatsuki for four months now!"

Sakura stared.

"You should feel honored." Itachi smirked. "We don't do this for just anyone. Actually for no one really. Just you."

Sakura stared.

"I think she's in shock." Zetsu stated calmly.

"I would agree." Sasori said from down the table next to Itachi.

Itachi got another one of those wicked gleams in his eyes. "Sasori, maybe a kiss would help her recover?" he suggested too innocently.

Sasori gave Itachi an exasperated look.

"I'll do it!" Deidara jumped up. Before Sakura could protest Deidara had swooped down- yes, actual swoopage- and pecked Sakura on the lips.

Sakura stared.

"It didn't work, neh!" Deidara watched her a little disappointed.

Sasori snorted.

"Tobi's turn!" Tobi jumped up.

Deidara turned to glare at Tobi and there was a teensy little explosion under the masked man's chair. Tobi yelped. Deidara smiled smugly.

"Maybe I should use tongue on our next kiss?" Deidara suggested.

"Don't be a fool, Deidara!" Hidan spluttered.

"Do I sense some jealousy?" Deidara teased as he looked at Hidan.

Hidan glared. "For Jashin-sama!" he cried as he pulled out his scythe.

Everyone at the table sighed as the two went at it in the living room.

"Oi! If you ruin the sofa the cost of a new one is coming out of your pay checks!" Kakuzu warned.

"Morons." Zetsu's dark side muttered, disappearing.

"I quite agree." Said its twin.

Kisame whistled as he cleaned up the table. Itachi smirked at Sakura. Sasori's eyes showed laughter. Sakura stared.

"She's still in shock, Sasori." Itachi murmured. "Maybe you should take Deidara's advice and use tongue on her this time. I'm sure that'll wake her up."

"Itachi you're mean." Kakuzu laughed. "But I agree. Sasori, why don't you take Sakura back to her room and… _warm her up_ to the idea…"

Itachi and Kakuzu cackled.

Sasori's face, of course, remained calm and almost bored, although Sakura saw some flush on his cheeks. "You are all idiots."

"So then I can warm her up?" Itachi asked all too innocently.

Sakura eeped, her face turning pink.

Sasori sighed and stood up. He walked over to Sakura's chair and then glanced around. Deidara and Hidan were too busy fighting each other while Tobi cheered them on, Kisame was in the kitchen, and Zetsu had disappeared.

Sasori leaned down to Sakura's ear and murmured her name in a throaty voice.

She shivered.

Then his lips were on hers. She parted to allow his tongue in and they danced for a second. The room suddenly felt very hot.

When Sasori pulled away, he smirked at Itachi and Kakuzu, who were still sitting at the table with dumbfounded looks on their faces.

Sakura tried not to giggle as Sasori led her back upstairs.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_


	10. Chapter 10

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER APPLIES**

* * *

><p><span><em>Chapter Ten: Unexpected Company<em>

"Shall we?" Sasori whispered in her ear as they ran into his room.

Sakura automatically ripped off her clothes and Sasori practically pushed her onto the bed, his clothes already gone. Without preamble he started kissing down her neck, sending zings of pleasure through her body. The more she tried to suppress the moans, the more it would arouse Sasori.

Her hands found their way to his chest, massaging the straining muscles above her. Sasori himself couldn't stop stroking Sakura, running his fingers across her flat stomach, and even lower, causing Sakura to gasp. He shoved his tongue into her gasp, and she moan into his lips.

When they finally broke away, Sasori returned to covering her body in kisses.

"The things you do with your tongue should be illegal!" Sakura gasped as his tongue licked the inside of her thigh.

When her body arched in pleasure, Sasori caught her back and dragged her against him, grinding into her. Sakura clenched her teeth to mute the scream of pleasure threatening to break through. She wrapped her legs around him and pulled his face towards her.

"The way you make me feel should be illegal." Sasori murmured into her ear, licking it. Sakura groaned, and Sasori's insides were on fire.

Her nails clawed lightly into his back. Suddenly Sasori found himself on his back, with Sakura leaning over him. Straddling his hips, she gently ran her hands up and down his chest.

"You're so handsome." She whispered, tracing a finger on his abs.

Sasori stared hungrily up at her, his gaze devouring her naked appearance. The beautiful woman on top of him leaned down only close enough so that he could feel the heat of her aroused body, but without letting her torso touch him. It was agonizing how close she was, but he didn't move.

Her breath fanned over his neck and she ran her lips from his chin, up to his cheekbone, then to his hairline. Then her lips trailed down his forehead, down his nose, and finally alighting their proper place on his lips. When she did so, Sasori wrapped his arms around her and pulled her down the last inch between their bodies.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"Can't get enough of you." He said to her as they laid down on his bed long after they had first entered his room.

"I agree." Sakura smirked beside him, her words confusing him.

Sasori sighed and allowed a small smile. He rolled onto his side and kissed her lips. She wrapped her body around him and suddenly they were making out again.

"Sasori…" she breathed. _I love you._

Sakura scowled at Inner Sakura. 'Now don't go thinking stuff like that-'

'_You love him.' Inner Sakura practically screamed. 'Don't go denying it! Your heart- our heart- has already betrayed Konoha!'_

'And just what exactly did you want me to do about that? Just stop loving him?' Sakura screamed back.

'_So you admit it.' Inner Sakura stated, calming down. 'Now tell him.'_

'Whoa. No way. Hell. No.' Sakura mentally shook her head. 'He's just…'

'_A good fuck?' Inner Sakura said sarcastically. 'Don't kid yourself.'_

'What will he do then? He's a criminal. It's not like I could settle down with him.' Sakura thought sadly. 'I can't afford to get attached. Even if I already am.'

'_At least let him know.' Inner Sakura said._

'Why are we having this conversation?' Sakura thought angrily.

_Inner Sakura scoffed. 'You're both ninjas. You know perfectly well that he could die at any given day. So could you. So before fate rips the two apart, at least let him know.'_

Sakura kept her outer demeanor calm, Sasori already breathing evenly in her arms. She sat up and got dressed. Then Sakura quietly exited Sasori's room, the hallways of the base outside dark. Everyone was sleeping or out on a mission.

Sakura leaned against a window pane, staring out at the land stretching before her. The moon was just a sliver now. Another month had past. Five months.

Holding up her hand, Sakura stared at her hand for unknown reasons. She had been sleeping with Sasori for two months. Kami. And she was already head over heels for him.

She stared west towards Konoha. Somewhere in that direction Tsunade was probably tossing and turning in her bed or drowning her sorrows in sake. Under the same starlit sky somewhere were her friends.

After just two months of disappearing on a mission, normally a ninja would be announced dead. Sakura wondered how Naruto would have taken that. It made her wince just thinking about the idiotic stuff he would get into lashing out in his anger.

'Every time I make peace with myself for being with Sasori, these thoughts come back.' Sakura thought sadly.

She didn't want to betray Konoha. To her relief, all the members of the Akatsuki seemed to be okay with that, and never tried to get information out of her. But how long would they let her drift here before she was expected to start earning her keep?

Sakura sighed deeply.

She wanted so desperately to go home. She missed working at the hospital, going on missions with her team, bickering with Ino or Hinata. No doubt her skills were severely rusty now, since the Akatsuki would definitely never allow her to practice. Sakura still did some exercises in her room, but for the most part, it was boring.

'I hate being caged like this!' she thought, surprised at how fierce the thought sounded in her head. As much as she loved Sasori, the Akatsuki couldn't keep her like this forever. They might kill her or force her to join their ranks. But Sakura knew for certain that if she had to be kept in this gilded cage for another month she would seriously lose it.

Suddenly a rogue thought entered her mind. It was so obvious since the start! Why hadn't she thought of it before?

Carefully her chakra reached out to the window. There were two seals there, one hiding the window from the view of outsiders, another to protect the window pane from being broken or removed by force. The Akatsuki weren't fools.

Well- except Tobi.

Sakura carefully removed the seal, moving slowly so she could make sure she wouldn't set off any traps or alarms. Once that was done, Sakura carefully removed the glass, setting it carefully on the floor, leaning against the wall.

The fresh air hit her as she climbed out. Almost hyperventilating, Sakura took in large gulps of the air, filled with the scent of trees and dirt and dew. She sat on the ledge, just staring at nothing in particular.

She knew she wouldn't leave. This was her opportunity to escape, but Sasori would never forgive her if she just left. Not like this. And she would never forgive herself for how much it would have hurt him.

Wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her chin on her knees, Sakura watched with detached curiosity as her eyes landed on a mysterious bright dot in the trees. Using her medical skills with chakra, Sakura enhanced her vision, momentarily zooming in as the world lit up in the darkness.

It was a fire.

A campfire.

There were figures moving around it. Sakura suddenly came back to herself. A campfire!

She carefully made her way down the ledges, avoiding the traps the Akatsuki set up for would-be intruders. The darkness of the forest swallowed her as she stepped into the cover of their branches. Glancing back at the mountain (she hadn't realized the base was in a mountain…) she made up her mind and crept through the forest.

Even if her creeping skills were rusty from disuse, Sakura was a naturally silent stalker. Her hearing was alert, and heard the faintest rustling of her movements in the forest. But those sounds were drowned out by the nightly drone of tree frogs, crickets, and the occasional snap of an animal moving in the night.

With each sound interrupting her silence Sakura flinched. She almost fainted when she noticed a pair of gold cat eyes glancing at her through the foliage, the mountain lion stopping to assess whether she was a threat or not. Sakura stayed still, willing herself to watch the cat nonchalantly.

Not seeing any threat in her, the wild animal turned and prowled away, his silent movements eerie. Not that Sakura couldn't take mountain lion, but she was trying to go unnoticed at the moment, and an angry wild cat would most likely give her away. Plus she would have felt bad killing such a magnificent animal.

Nothing else eventful happened as Sakura spent another half hour prowling quietly in the direction she had seen the campfire. It came out of nowhere. First everything was cast in nightly shadows, and suddenly she saw the light up ahead.

Her ninja brain instantly awoke from its long slumber and began advising her. If this camp belonged to ninjas, the perimeter would be larger than just a bunch of travelers. She sent out unnoticeable tendrils of chakra out to check for those on watch. There were two guards walking the perimeter.

Cloaking her chakra signature, Sakura leaped silently into the trees. The watch was still far away from her position, but she couldn't be too careful. As she watched the camp from far away, one of the sleeping figures turned in their sleep. Sakura gasped.

Ino!

She enhanced her eyes a little more, the muscles slightly pained from the added strain. Two figures sitting across the campfire from her direction were revealed by the fire to be Shikamaru and Neji, leaning close and probably talking about something.

Ino rolled over again and Sakura saw Hinata sleeping on the ground next to her. Her attention returned to the two persons on watch, nearing her position. Fingers curling with anxiety, Sakura peered down and saw Naruto- oh hell. No way!

"Sasuke?" Sakura mouthed to herself, so shocked that she forgot her voice, even as her lips formed the silent words. It was a good thing too, because if her body had remembered her voice, she wouldn't have been able to stop herself from screeching in shock.

'_!' Inner Sakura screeched in one long word. "Holy Hell! Of all the- What has happened in the past five months back in Konoha!'_

Sakura's own thoughts were a dead blank. If her brain had been attached to a heart monitor, it would have gone dead two minutes ago. Suddenly she realized she was in her pajamas (which were really just a pair of trousers with a plain dark blue shirt) and crouching in a tree above what used to be her old team.

And she looked and smelled of sex.

'HOLY HELL!'

'_Hawt.' Inner Sakura nodded in approval._

'Shut up. Let's focus on the fact that I COULD BE CAUGHT LOOKING LIKE I JUST HAD SEX WITH THE AKATSUKI!' Sakura snapped.

'_But you did.' Inner Sakura cackled. 'Hot and heavy sex. Ooh now I want more.'_

She couldn't let them see her like this. And Sakura knew Sasuke would probably sense even her cloaked chakra. Swear words went in one long stream through her mind, amusing Inner.

They were getting closer.

Sakura didn't have time to climb down the tree, so she leaped silently to another tree, wincing with each faint rustle she didn't manage to avoid. She felt the chakra signature of Sasuke and Naruto flare up behind her. They would be alert now, but if she escaped fast enough, they wouldn't realize she had been there and dismiss the rustling for the wildlife.

She didn't notice her tears until she found herself staring up at the mountain that hid the Akatsuki base. She stared up at it and fell to her knees. The sobs rocked her body.

They were so close!

She could have revealed herself and been gone long before the Akatsuki noticed her escape!

_Sasori._

Curse her heart. She couldn't leave him wondering if what they had was real. Just thinking of leaving him made her heart constrict.

_I love him._

_Oh gods have mercy on me. I love him. Oh god I love him so much it hurts._

Sakura swore she felt her heart tearing itself into two parts: a part that loved Konoha and her friends, and the other half just for Sasori.

"I hate you…I hate you…" she whispered to herself. She hated herself. For her weakness for falling for Sasori. For believing she could hide from the choice she had to make.

She hated herself for regretting her love for Sasori.

'Stop that!' she yelled to herself. 'I love him. How can I regret that?'

Without thinking, Sakura let out a screech. The pain and anguish, the guilt that was eating her alive erupted form her, piercing the night. The animals of the forest spooked and Sakura could hear them running through the trees in confusion. The Choice. It was killing her.

_I love them both. But I can only have one._

Sakura stood up and brushed herself off. Wiping her face, she quickly bounded towards the mountain. Deftly avoiding the traps and seals protecting the base, she found her way to the window she had opened.

Within two minutes Sakura had replaced the glass and re-sealed the window, then crawled into her bed, crying silently into her pillow. She needed to be alone.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Naruto swore he had felt a flare of familiar chakra, but had been distracted as Sasuke flared his own powerful chakra just after Naruto had.

"I swore I saw pink…" Sasuke muttered, and Naruto was instantly alert.

"Where?" he gasped, sweeping his gaze around the dark forest.

Sasuke pointed up. "In the trees. Did you feel any familiar chakra? I think I did."

Naruto shook his head in frustration. "It was too faint and was gone before I could focus on it. Almost as if I imagined it."

Sasuke nodded in agreement.

Naruto ran his hand through his hair and growled. He didn't like this. Could it have been Sakura? What if the Akatsuki were just trying to confuse them, or playing with them?

There were sounds of faint movements in the trees in front of the two shinobi, but the movements were headed away from them. Naruto glanced around the area. The forest was quiet again. He lightly punched the nearest tree, his muscles weak from sorrow.

He missed Sakura so much, he though his heart would break. She was one of the most important people in his life. Like a sister, only closer. He knew they would never be involve romantically, even if there were moments in their past where they had almost been more. After Sasuke had left, Sakura and Naruto turned to each other, anchoring the other down.

And now his anchor was gone. Sakura. Was. Gone. Her ghost haunted his dreams, which was why Naruto had taken first watch that night. He couldn't sleep, and if it came, it was fitful and full of nightmares where Sakura was dead or worse.

She was more than a teammate. Family. A mother, a sister, a friend. And in the most hopeless moments in his life after Sasuke had left, Sakura had even been a lover. Naruto and her had never been serious, but they comforted each other.

Glancing at Sasuke, Naruto wondered what Sasuke would think of that if he found out. Which he probably would sometime in the future. Sasuke was being strange on their search for Sakura.

It was almost like the stoic Uchiha actually _cared_ for Sakura. Although Naruto would have liked to think that was the reason Sasuke was with them now, he couldn't rule out the possibility that Sasuke was just doing all this to find Itachi. Naruto didn't care. He would find Sakura.

Suddenly the night quiet was split by an inhuman heart wrenching scream.

The pain and anguish of the sound froze Naruto for a second, his heartbeat thumping in his ears as adrenaline pumped through his veins. He didn't think as he took off towards the sound, branches crashing behind him as other chakra signatures followed him.

He stopped.

Behind him Sasuke and the others skidded to a stop.

"Where did that come from?" Neji demanded.

Naruto shook his head. "It was only one scream. I can't tell where it it came from now that it's gone."

People behind him cursed. So did Naruto. He glanced at his teammates around him, his eyes widening when he saw Sasuke clutching Sakura's headbeand.

"D-Do y-you think…" Hinata started. Everyone turned to her and she shrunk back a little. Neji placed his hand on her back reassuringly, and she stopped hiding.

"I-I don't l-l-like saying this… B-but d-didn't that scream s-sound l-like…" Hinata's voice trailed off.

"Sakura." Ino finished, her eyes wide with horror. Her hand shot out and gripped Shikamaru's. The man in her grip started in surprise and glanced at Ino. But Ino was too busy staring off into the distance to realize she was holding Shikamaru's hand.

In the back of his mind Naruto was amused as Shikamaru tried not to blush at his predicament. "Can anyone here pinpoint where the scream came from? Can anyone sense any lingering presences?"

Everyone shook their heads. Naruto swore colorfully. "If only… ugh!"

"I thought I saw a flash of… pink." Sasuke said aloud.

Tense quiet descended.

"I those bastards hurt Sakura-chan…" Naruto clenched his teeth.

"Please don't say those words!" Hinata pleaded in her soft voice. "I start imagining the worst! Please stop!"

Neji laid his arm across her shoulders trying to comfort her. "Naruto, why don't we return to the camp. Any more of this talk and none of us will be able to sleep. And we are storming a possible Akatsuki base tomorrow, remember?"

Naruto flashed Hinata an apologetic smile as Neji turned her around. Neji hugged the petite girl, then led her back towards the camp. "She'll be okay, Hinata. Sakura is strong." Naruto heard Neji murmur to Hinata.

Ino's gaze was distant, her eyes full of horror.

"Ino-chan?" Shikamaru asked her worriedly. Ino didn't respond, just stared at nothing. Shikamaru sighed and wrapped an arm around her back to guide her towards the camp. As the two began to fade behind the veil of foliage, Naruto heard Ino begin to cry, the noise growing fainter the farther from him she and Shikamaru went.

Naruto turned to Sasuke. His old friend was staring at the mountain looming into the sky. His hand clutched Sakura's old headband as if it would disappear any moment now. Sasuke's face was unreadable, but Naruto saw a mass of emotion roiling in confusing amounts in Sasuke's eyes.

"Sasuke." Naruto said.

The man in question turned towards Naruto. "That was her scream, wasn't it?"

Naruto didn't say anything. Sakura's scream was a sound Naruto could never forget. Yes, it was definitely Sakura's scream. Except Naruto had never heard it in such agony before. And he had listened to her as she was tortured and battered throughout their missions together.

"Answer me." Sasuke's deep voice was so low. Naruto was unable to decipher what emotions Sasuke was feeling, but whatever they were, they were strong.

"What do you think?" Naruto gritted his teeth.

Sasuke closed his eyes. Even after- what was it, five years since he left Konoha?- he could never forget the sound of Sakura's scream. She had lungs.

"What could she have been screaming about?" Sasuke whispered to himself.

Naruto's gaze was sad. "I don't know. Let's not think about it." He clenched his hands into fist. "We'll get those bastards in the morning."

Sasuke nodded. He glanced back at the mountain. Then he turned and walked next to Naruto as they walked back to camp.

Sasuke never let go of Sakura's headband.


	11. Chapter 11

**So I went back and re-read chapter 11 anfter I posted it... and my spelling was horrendous! My left eye was twitching at the end! (just kidding...)**

**Ugh so yeah, school is chewing my ass and spitting it out. So I'm sorry if I'm poofed for, like, months. Yeah. MONTHS. But I promise to keep writing. Anyways, so here is a funny chapter. Figured I make y'all laugh before I make y'all cry. ;)**

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO BECAUSE IF I DID I'D TOTALLY WRITE MYSELF IN THERE AS SAKURAS ASS-KICKING FRIEND WHO TOTALLY SHOWS SASUKE THAT HE'S A MORONIC ASSHOLE EVEN IF I CAN'T HELP BUT LOVE SASUSAKU BUT I'D TOTALLY HAVE SAKURA WIPE THE FLOOR WITH HIS ASS AND HAVE ITACHI COME BACK TO LIFE AND GET THE HAPPY ENDING HE DESERVES, A.K.A. FALL IN LOVE WITH ME AND...**

**Sakura: *pushes Lilithia out of the way* Anyway, onto the chapter! *turns back to Lilithia* You are an idiot.**

**Me: *still ranting***

* * *

><p><em><span>Chapter Eleven: Bitch stole my look!<span>_

Eyes opened.

Blink.

Blink.

Sakura sat up and rubbed her eyes, the skin red-rimmed and sensitive from her silent tears all night. All she waned to do was sob to her hearts content last night, but she didn't dare risk awakening any of the Akatsuki members. So she buried her face into a pillow instead.

Glancing down at said pillow, Sakura grimaced at the blotches on the fabric. Sighing heavily, she went into her restroom to wash up. When she entered, she froze and stared.

"Whoa. I look like hell." Sakura mumbled as she stared at her reflection. With that she vigorously scrubbed her face.

Sakura stood staring at herself in the mirror for a long while. It was hard to believe she had been gone from Konoha for only five months. Actually, it would be six months next week.

With another heavy sigh, Sakura ran her fingers through her hair. When her fingers came across several twigs, she groaned. And she had just washed her face too!

And so Sakura went to her dresser to find a clean change of clothes, setting them on the bathroom counter next to a towel, stripping while the shower warmed up. Another sigh escaped her as she stepped under the warm spray, rolling her shoulders to loosen the muscles and cracking her neck. After washing her hair and body, Sakura's mind wandered back to the previous night.

_So close…_

'No! Now is not the time to think about that! Not here!' she told herself with a mental shake.

Sakura didn't know how long she stood under the shower, but one moment she was lost in her troubled thoughts, and the next moment a pair of large hands were wrapping themselves around her body.

Sakura sucked in a sharp breath as she was jolted from her thoughts. Before she could open her mouth to yelp, she recognized the familiar feeling of Sasori's hands.

"You missed breakfast." He mumbled as he pulled her against him.

Already the arousal she felt whenever he was around was warming certain areas of the body, and Inner Sakura spazzed. As Sasori nuzzled her shoulder, she felt a certain part of him reacting to her arousal, doubling the tingling rush in her veins. Sakura melted into his arms.

"You smell terrible." Sakura wrinkled her nose as she realized the sweaty smell was coming from him.

His chuckled rumbled through her as his hands caressed the front of her body while he nipped her ear. "I went out training with Deidara this morning."

"Training?" she asked, her voice hopeful.

"No, you are still technically a prisoner of the Akatsuki. No training for you." His voice went a little higher pitched as he repeated what Sakura guessed was the voice of their leader, Pein. " 'Prisoners are to be suppressed at all times, no matter their intentions, lest they betray us.' "

Sakura huffed. "I need to punch something. Anything! I'm tired of being caged up like this while my fighting skills rust!"

"There is nothing I can do." Sasori sighed.

Sakura huffed again.

His wonderful deep chuckle rumbled her being. Sasori really had one of the deepest voices she'd ever heard.

'_And you especially love that deep timbre he gets when you're turning him on.' Inner Sakura whispered conspiratorially._

Under normal circumstances the comment would have made her blush, but now that she was so comfortable around him, she could only agree with her Inner.

"So how did training go?" Sakura asked as she turned in Sasori's arms, a satisfying _slap_ sounding as their wet bodies pressed against one another.

"I'm pretty much used to this new body now." Sasori answered. "And all my puppets are up to par."

"They aren't… You're not talking about puppets that were once human, are you?" She asked hesitantly.

Sasori smiled understandingly. "You destroyed all of my greater puppets. I only have the artificial ones with me right now, seeing as I haven't been in any state to go out and acquire some properly powerful bodies."

His words didn't sit well with her.

Sakura looked away.

"But let's not dwell on that…" Sasori mumbled as he cupped her rear. Sakura couldn't help but gasp, not only at the gesture, but at the speed of which the fire coursed through her veins. Suddenly all she could think of was jumping Sasori right there in the shower-

'_Not that he would mind.' Inner Sakura giggled._

But first…

"You're filthy." Sakura stated, pulling away.

Sasori's face fell, looking like she had just taken away his favorite toy. On anyone else it would have looked like a pout. Sakura almost smiled at the thought of a pouting Sasori.

"Oh come on _Sakura_…" the way Sasori breathed her name sent shivers down her spine.

"I'm sure you'll enjoy what I have in mind…" she smiled heatedly as she grabbed some soap and began to rub it around his shoulders.

Comprehension dawned on Sasori's face, and he gave her a devastating smirk. "Well since I'm so dirty, I guess that means you need to be cleaned again."

It was a very, _very_ wonderful shower.

Of course eventually the erotic pleasuring in the shower wasn't enough, and soon Sakura and Sasori practically tackled each other to the bed.

"_Sasori_…" Sakura breathed, allowing her breath to fan across his shoulder as they laid together on her bed.

He lifted his chin and traced the bottom of her jaw with his tongue, making her body tremble in anticipation. But he kept his face buried next to hers in her still-damp hair, his breath warm on her flushed skin. Sakura laid under his surprisingly light body (for a man his size anyway), with her arms wrapped around him, her fingers combing lazily through damp red curls.

Turning her head, Sakura bit lightly at his ear.

Sasori groaned into her neck, and she fought to bite back her giggles. Suddenly his hands were roaming her body again, and even though they'd already had sex, Sakura was surprised he still had so much sexual drive left. Not that she was complaining.

And yet not once did he bother to lift his face away from the curve of her neck.

"Sasori… Sasori…" she cooed over and over.

Finally, on the eighth call, he responded. "_What_?" came his gruff voice.

Sakura couldn't help but giggle. Sasori was so cute when he was tired and lazy. She felt one of his eyebrows twitched against her skin as her soft giggles intensified for a few seconds.

"What was that for?"

"Have I ever mention how cute you are when you're like this?" she asked him.

"When I'm like what?" He still didn't lift his face. The way his voice was muffled was cute too!

"When your being lazy and grumpy." She smiled impishly.

Now Sasori lifted his head. One look at the mischief in her face and he crashed his lips against hers, delving his tongue into her already-swollen mouth. Such sweet lips.

When he pulled away, he gave her a dashing smiled before dropping his face into the junction of her neck.

"Seriously, Sasori. Won't the others be suspicious? Besides, we need to head downstairs anyway. I haven't had breakfast!"

But he tightened his grip around her small back and waist, rubbing his chin across her collarbone. "You mean dinner."

Sakura paused. "What?"

"When I said you missed breakfast earlier… I didn't mention that you also skipped lunch." She could hear the evil grin in his voice.

"What!" Sakura tried to sit up but Sasori's grip was too strong, even with her inhuman strength. The man was really strong when he wanted to be stubborn.

"Dinner should be cooking in about one to two hours." He mumbled into the hair-strewn pillow. "Just wait 'til then."

"But-"

His arms tightened and he pressed her into the bed. Sakura felt the arousal in her body stirring at his intimate touch. Warm kisses began trailing down her neck and then back up and to her ear. She was unable to suppress the moan that snuck up on her.

His lips smirked against her neck, just under her jaw. Her hands grasped at his body, kneading his toned muscles, tightening with every gasp and whimper he forced from her.

_Love him so much…_

"I never wanna leave this bed." Sasori's beautiful tenor resounded close to her ear, his voice lilting softly with the accent associated with those from the Wind Country, particularly Suna. It was almost musical, and Sakura found herself humming with pleasure as she pressed closer to him.

_Love him… But I can't have him forever…_

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Sasori could feel the tension emanating off his girl, and it wasn't sexual tension. Although now she was more relaxed than when he had found her, she was still worried about something. And he gritted his teeth knowing that there was nothing he could do for her.

Sakura was in pain. He wasn't sure what caused it, but he knew it was a wound he couldn't tend to. It was an enemy he couldn't face, and he didn't like the feeling of helplessness the thought brought him.

He could feel her starting to break.

'My dear Sakura. Don't break inside. Please Sakura.' He thought, his eyes drifting over her pinched features as she slept on his chest. His fingers tangled into her strands. 'I love her so much. Gods help me she's undone me.'

Her muscles tensed and her eyebrows scrunched as something disturbed her in her dreams. Suddenly Sakura's eyes flew open, staring unseeing at the ceiling. Fingers clenched into his torso, body tense; even with her eyes open she seemed to be caught in the nightmare.

"Sakura?" Sasori stroked her back.

She didn't answer.

"Sakura?" 'Dammit what's wrong with you?'

"Sakura?" 'Just give me a sign. Respond somehow.' He thought as his hands clenched her shoulders.

With a shudder Sakura seemed to come back to herself, eyes fluttered open and close for a couple seconds before locking on his.

"I'm okay, Sasori." She whispered with a reassuring smile.

He shook his head. "Tell me."

Sakura looked away. Gently he clasped her chin and made eye contact with her. Sakura huffed. "Darn it, I can't resist you when you look at me with those eyes."

"What eyes?" he asked innocently.

She glared at him. "Don't play innocent with me. You know how to disarm a person with one look. Stupid angelic eyes."

He chuckled and kissed her forehead. Underneath him Sakura relaxed and he heard her sigh in defeat. Looking back down at her, he touched his nose to hers and stared into those beautiful emeralds.

"Tell me what's bothering you, my love."

She sucked in a sharp breath.

_Love. Dude, you just said the forbidden word._

'Who the hell are you? Shut up.' It was that same annoying voice that appeared when Sasori had first began interacting with Sakura.

_Hehe._

Sasori mentally shook himself and focused on Sakura. Those beautiful eyes of hers were flicking across his face, as if memorizing each and every detail of his face. So intent on her gaze that he was surprised when a callused but soft hand cradled his cheek. Sakura's fingers traced his lips, causing Sasori's heart to constrict with an alien emotion.

"I dreamt… that you left me." She whispered, the pain in her voice evident.

Sasori, who had been resting on his elbows above her, leaned his body next to hers and pulled Sakura against his body, resting his chin on top of her head.

"I will never leave you." 'You already hold my heart.' He thought, but unlike the man he used to be, these thoughts actually made him happy.

"You didn't leave me as in broke up with me…" she mumbled into his chest. "You were… taken."

He was silent as he waited for Sakura to elaborate further.

"We were walking in a garden. Sakura blossoms swirled so thickly through the air that I could barely see in front of me. But you were next to me, holding my hand." She hugged him tighter. "Then everything was black, except the blossoms swirling around us. And your hand was yanked from mine. I turned around and around but I couldn't find you. All I heard was your voice."

Sasori allowed the vision to settle in his mind before he ventured to ask, "What did my voice say?"

She was quiet for a long while.

"You said…" she took a deep breath. "You said, 'I'll always be watching.'… And then I felt alone. And I knew- that you were gone."

Sasori felt his brows furrow. It was an impossible dream. He would rather fight the entire Konoha village than willingly leave Sakura.

Surprised at his thoughts, Sasori reviewed them. 'Whoa. I guess I really do love her…' he shook his head, somewhat disturbed, though the thought of being in love with Sakura was not unpleasant. 'Is that what this is? Love?'

He chuckled and began to rub her back.

"What's so funny?" she growled between sniffles.

Shaking his head, Sasori had a lazy smile on his face as he bent his head to touch his forehead to Sakura's. One arms wrapped around her waist while the other came up to cup her face.

"If you think I'd actually let you go, you are sadly mistaken." He kissed his on the lips, slowly, luxuriously, but with restrained passion. She smiled against his lips.

"I'd never leave you either, Sasori." She wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him in.

And then they heard the explosion.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Earlier in the afternoon they watched with bated breath as two Akatsuki members left the base. It was all the reassurance they needed that it was the right place. Ino had to hold Shikamaru back as Hidan and Kakuzu ran off towards the north.

"So this is the place." Neji mumbled as he stared at the mountain. He couldn't believe that they'd actually found an Akatsuki base. This meant so much for Konoha! Of course, they couldn't tell Konoha yet since this wasn't exactly a sanctioned mission.

"We're so close!" Hinata whispered nervously next to him as they both stared into the mountain with the Byakugan.

"How many do you see?" Shikamaru growled from behind them. Ino still had her hand clamped on his arm to keep him from running after Hidan and Kakuzu.

Neji and Hinata squinted their eyes.

"It's still very far away." Neji said. "I can make out some blurs of chakra, but I can't specify who or what they are."

Hinata nodded. "I see… four… five chakra signatures."

"Five Akatsuki are still dangerous, considering how much damage even one can do." Neji warned.

"And there's six of us." Shikamaru said.

"Don't forget that one of those chakra signatures belongs to Sakura." Ino said, making all of them tense up. Yes, Sakura was so close. But the Akatsuki weren't likely to give her up easily.

"Okay." Shikamaru stood up and stretched from his position on the tree. "Ino, perform your mind transfer jutsu on an animal, preferably something small and unnoticeable. Then go and check for openings in the base's defenses."

She nodded and went off to find a squirrel.

"Neji, Hinata, keep your eyes on the base and when Ino goes to check the defenses, watch for her signals."

They nodded.

"I'm going to find Ino now to catch her body." Shikamaru glanced behind him into the forest after her. "Naruto, Sasuke, don't do anything just yet. You'll be our heavy-hitters on this mission. Once we've found a way through the defenses, we'll sneak in and find Sakura. I'd like to do this without the Akatsuki even knowing we were there."

Like that was going to happen. They all knew that the Akatsuki were too good to not sense six intruders in their base, but they knew that the faster they get Sakura out the better.

"Remember, Sakura gets first priority. Get her out fast and far. Don't wait for the rest of us." Everyone nodded as Shikamaru left to find Ino.

"Here we go." Naruto muttered.

It took almost two hours for Ino to find a weakness in the defenses and for the group to make a plan on how to sneak in. By then the sun was already setting, and under the cover of shadows, the ninjas broke into the base.

They found themselves following a dank staircase leading only downwards. So they had no choice but to follow it. The moisture from the earth was smothering, the walls too slimy for them to want to touch it. Sasuke made a small fire in the palm of his hand, leading the way as they walked single file through the darkness.

The staircase ended when they walked into a room full of metal bars. The dungeon. Wind coming from the staircase created an eerie howl as it entered the room, sending a chill down all their spines, not that the boys would admit it. The dungeon was thankfully empty, looking as if it hadn't had any inhabitants in a long time. Of course, the Akatsuki rarely bothered to take prisoners.

The ninjas avoided looking at the torture tools hung neatly on the wall across from the cells, flecked with rust and blood. Many of the tools also glimmered green or purple. Poison.

Hinata covered her mouth and placed her other hand on her stomach, smothering the growing nausea.

Neji noticed and quickly placed his arm around her shoulders. "Guys, let's get out of here." He said softly.

With silent agreement, they all searched for the staircase that should lead upwards. Ino approached Hinata and rubbed the shivering girl's back while Neji tried to hide his worry. The platinum blonde swallowed as images of a tortured Sakura came unbidden into her mind. Ino pushed away the thoughts.

"I found it!" Naruto called, and everyone winced as his obnoxious voice echoed in the metal walls.

"Naruto you friggin dumb ass! What the fuck is wrong with you? Keep your damn voice down!" Ino hissed. "Are you even capable of whispering?"

Naruto shrunk away from Ino in fear. "Sorry Ino-chan!" He whispered (although his whisper was still somehow obnoxiously loud). "You seem rather cranky. Is it that time of month?"

An aura of death radiated from the kunoichi as Shikamaru looked on in exasperation and Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Do you have a death wish, Naruto-dobe?" Sasuke asked calmly.

"Troublesome idiots." Shikamaru muttered. "This is a serious mission."

Naruto clamped his mouth shut and looked guilty. Ino smacked the back of his head before walking cautiously up the stairs. Rubbing his head sadly, Naruto followed Ino, and the others followed the two loud blondes.

Ino carefully opened the door at the top of the stairwell, sticking her head slowly to peer down both ends of the hallway. She wrinkled her nose in dislike. The Akatsuki had really boring tastes. Cement floors and dark, almost black red walls. What they needed was a florist.

'WTF?' Ino shook her head at her strange thoughts.

"Clear." She called quietly behind her, opening the door and taking a defensive pose as the others filed into the hall.

"Which way?" Naruto asked as they all looked back and forth between the two ends of the hall.

"Into the ground, yeah!" Said a voice with a strange accent. Everyone swiveled to see a blonde Akatsuki member turn into the hall from their right, looking at them with a maniacally smug grin.

"What's this, un? A bunch of ninja brats!" Deidara cocked his head. "Thought I sensed something. Funny, some of you seem familiar, yeah. Ah well, you'll all be charred beyond recognition when I'm done with you, yeah!"

"BITCH!" Ino cried, pointing an obnoxious finger at Deidara. He cocked an eyebrow while his hand chewed some clay. "WHAT'S THAT ON YOUR HEAD?"

Shikamaru sighed. Everyone else was confused.

"It's my hair, un." Deidara glared at Ino's finger, and even though she was halfway down the hall, he could feel that obnoxious finger with a perfectly manicured nail just _poking_ him in the forehead. "And you can't have any of it, yeah!"

And in slow motion, Deidara flipped his hair, the world sparkling for a moment.

"BITCH STOLE MY LOOK!" Ino screeched.

Everyone did a double take between Deidara and Ino. Hinata's mouth dropped open. Naruto snickered. Shikamaru, Neji, and Sasuke smirked.

Deidara narrowed his eyes. "My hair's prettier than your, yeah! Don't even compare them!"

"Oh please, you transvestite! You can't beat this shit!" Ino yelled at him angrily. "I fucking use _Paul Mitchell_!" **(A/N: I don't own Paul Mitchell. He makes great salon products though!)**

"BITCH!" Deidara cried. "_I_ fucking use _Paul Mitchell!_"

The blondes glared at each other. Naruto snickered again.

"YOU. STOLE. MY. LOOK." Ino ground out.

"Bitch please." Deidara scoffed. "It was my look the whole time, un."

"I APPEARED IN THIS SERIES BEFORE YOU!" Ino yelled.

"I'M OLDER THAN YOU IN THE SERIES THOUGH, YEAH!" Deidara bit back.

Shikamaru sighed. "This is so fucked up."

"YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH PINEAPPLE-HEAD!" Deidara and Ino yelled at him. Shikamaru winced and clapped his hands over his ears.

"What did you just say?" Ino growled. "Shikamaru is _my_ pineapple head! No one can call him that but me!"

"Bitch, I can't help it if he looks like a pineapple-head to me, yeah!" Deidara shot back, seeming to forget the explosives his hands were still chewing in their boredom.

"What is this about a pineapple?" Shikamaru asked with wide eyes, confused. He had never felt so clueless before.

Hinata and Neji snickered with Naruto behind him. Sasuke couldn't believe the situation in front of him. _This _was one of the feared Akatsuki? A man (?) who argued about hairstyles and pineapple heads? WTF.

"And what makes him _your_ pineapple-head, yeah?" Deidara snickered.

Thankfully Ino was in front of everyone, so no one saw how her cheeks blushed furiously. "Are you laughing at me you wanna-be?" she taunted.

Deidara straightened. "Wanna-be? Oh no you didn't!"

"I believe I just did." Ino smirked as she inspected her nails.

"Whore, un."

"Jealous bitch."

"Mind-raper, un."

Ino gasped in outrage. "At least I don't have tongues for a lack of dick!"

"I HAVE A DICK, YEAH!" Deidara howled. "AND WHY WOULD YOU HAVE A DICK, UN?"

"Stop pretending you have one, Dickless!" Ino smirked.

Naruto winced.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Somewhere in Konoha…

Sai felt a strange feeling crawl up in spine and then sneezed. The force of his sneeze turned a page in the bingo-book he was currently flipping through, the pages settling on the picture of a psychotic looking Ino- ahem, Deidara.

"Oh." He said with a straight face as he wrote a small note to the side of the picture. "Another Dickless."

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Deidara sneezed. He had a bad feeling all of a sudden.

"Bitch what'd you do?" he yelled, knowing that it had to be her fault.

"What's _I _do?" she screeched. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING MIXING BLONDE WITH BLACK AND RED? THOSE COLORS SOOOO _DON'T_ COMPLIMENT BLONDE HAIR! YOU'RE DISGRACING MY HAIRSTYLE!"

"FOR THE LAST TIME, BITCH!" Deidara stamped his foot. "_YOU _STOLE _MY_ LOOK!"

"For the love of any and all gods, just shut up already!" Naruto finally yelled at them.

Ino and Deidara glared at Naruto with death in their eyes, and Deidara flipped the annoying boy off at the same time he threw a bomb at him.

Everyone gasped. Trapped in a narrow hallway with a psychotic bomber was not good. Jumping down the hall, the bomb exploded.

"I'll show you some art, un!"

"BITCH YOU ALMOST BURNT MY HAIR, _UN_!" Ino screeched.

Neji leaned in towards Shikamaru. "Why are you in love with her again?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Fuck, I wonder myself."

Neji smirked. "Good luck living with her."

Shikamaru reddened.

"Shikamaru and Ino?" Hinata gasped. They had forgotten she was there.

Shikamaru glared at Neji.

Meanwhile, Deidara had stilled in his maniacal laughter. "_What did you say?_"

"I said you almost burnt my hair, _UN._" Ino smirked.

"Are you making fun of my accent, yeah?" Deidara stared incredulously at the Leaf kunoichi. No one ever dared make fun of his accent!

"No, yeah!" she snickered.

"BITCH, UN!"

"TRANSVESTITE, _UN_!" Ino yelled.

And the battle commenced.

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><p><strong>I always wondered what would happen between a Deidara and Ino look-alike fight. Guess I got my answer. Ah, this is one of my favorite chapters.<strong>

**REVIEW DAMMIT! XD**


	12. Chapter 12

**I had a total FML morning. So right now, posting this new chapter is my only ray of sunshine.**

**FML. TT_TT**

**BUT ENJOY THIS CHAPTER! Or at least... don't rip my guts out when you finish reading it.**

**I love you all!**

**I DONT OWN NARUTO**

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><p><em><span>Chapter Twelve: Cut Strings<span>_

Sakura threw on a shirt and pants before rushing to meet Sasori in his room. She found him already dressed and stuffing scrolls with puppets sealed within them into his cloak. The look he gave her told her what she didn't want to hear.

"I'm fighting." She stated without backing down.

"No, you're not." He said calmly, grating on her nerves.

Growling, Sakura pinned him with a glare. "Just give me a couple weapons, Sasori."

"Did you hear what I just said?" he sighed as he went to coat his katana with a purple poison.

"Does it look like I'm about to listen?" she snapped back. "I'm a kunoichi. I can fight for myself."

Sasori now glared at her. "Yet you haven't been allowed to practice any of your skills in six months. I'm not letting you risk yourself like that."

"Sasori-"

"I said no!" he stood and sheathed his katana. Sighing, Sasori approached her and cupped her face. "I'm not leaving you, Sakura. Don't think that."

"I wasn't." she whispered, looking down.

Sasori leaned his forehead against hers before pulling away and walking past her. "I'm not willing to lose you. Not even to your Konoha friends."

Sakura gaped at the now empty doorway, listening to Sasori's purposeful strides as he disappeared out of the room and down the hall. Konoha? Konoha… they are the ones breaking into the base?

'_They attacked an Akatsuki base?' Inner Sakura screamed, snapping Sakura out of her shock. 'Naruto you baka!'_

Now Sakura gasped. "THEY'RE HERE?"

Then she swiveled around to find something, _anything_, that would help. Yet even as her eyes landed on a pouch of kunai, senbon, and shuriken, she stalled.

'What am I going to do?' she asked herself. 'Attack them? Attack Naruto and Ino and Hinata? Shikamaru and Neji? They are my friends!'

Still unsure of exactly what she was going to do, Sakura snatched the pouch of weapons, and ran down the hallway towards the sound of explosions and Naruto's especially loud yelling.

First she was running through the dimly lit corridors of the base, the next there was no more hallway or even base at all. One moment there was a hallway, the next Sakura found herself staring into the night, lit up by Deidara's bombs and Itachi and Sasuke exchanging fire jutsus. Kisame was using his chakra eating sword against Naruto and his seemingly endless chakra stamina. Tobi was actually fighting seriously; Sakura knew that even if he was an idiot, Tobi had unnatural speed, faster than Sasuke. And Tobi was using that as an advantage against the two Hyugas he was fighting. Shikamaru and Ino were fighting Deidara.

Sakura paused as she heard pieces of conversation between Ino and Deidara.

"What the hell?" she stared at Deidara. Now was not the time to be arguing over hair. Then she shook her head. Where was Sasori?

Suddenly Sakura watched as her old comrades stopped in their tracks, frozen in place. She didn't have to sense his chakra to recognize the invisible strings of Sasori. The fighting Akatsuki members jumped back and regrouped, but not before Kisame sent Naruto flying with his Sameheda.

Sakura bit her lip, hiding in the shadows, unsure of what to do. No matter who she helped, one side or the other would see her as a traitor. Under normal circumstances she'd never even dream of hesitating between her friends and the Akatsuki. But she couldn't do such a thing to Sasori. She owed him that much.

"As much as we'd love to stay and fight," Sasori said as he appeared in front of Deidara, his hand held out towards the Leaf ninjas, and Sakura knew his invisible puppet strings were there, "We have orders to retreat."

"WHAT?" Deidara and Kisame whined. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Tobi thinks retreating is a good idea!" Tobi cried, holding up a bleeding finger. Sakura rolled her eyes again.

"Shut up you pansy, yeah!" Deidara snapped. "That Leaf bitch over there stole my look!"

"So you want to get it back, Deidara-senpai?" Tobi scratched the back of his head. "How does one steal another's look?"

Deidara slapped a hand to his forehead and began muttering curses that rivaled Hidan.

"Let's just leave already." Itachi sighed.

"But what about the _prisoner_?" Deidara looked curiously at Sasori, stressing the last word almost sarcastically.

'Way to be inconspicuous.' Sakura thought sarcastically.

"BASTARD!" Naruto's voice called from across the broken expanse of forest. "WHAT HAVE YOU GUYS DONE WITH SAKURA-CHAN?"

"Deidara, you will hold these Leaf nin back while the rest retreat. I'll get the prisoner." Sasori said in his trademark calm voice, ignoring Naruto. "Deidara, give us some cover."

Deidara grinned maniacally and stepped forwards. "With pleasure, un!"

Sakura gasped as the ground between her friends and the Akatsuki blew sky high, the faint light of dawn brushing the top of the resulting cloud of dirt and smoke.

She watched as the three shadows of Kisame, Tobi, and Itachi began to run back to the base, to a different hall than the one she was hiding in. A fourth shadow ran in the opposite direction of the three, towards her. Sakura knew it was Sasori before her eyes could make him out in the darkness.

"Sasor-" she didn't even finish his name before he crashed into her, suffocating her in his embrace.

Sasori crashed his lips onto hers, then pulled back before her brain could register what was going on. "I'm getting you out of here."

"Sasori!" she objected as he began to pull her away from her hiding spot. "Wh-what's going on? Why are you guys retreating?"

He turned back to her. "Aren't you happy we aren't fighting your friends?"

"Yes!" Sakura exclaimed. "But I'm confused why you guys are retreating! I mean, it's just not like you guys!"

Sasori shook his head. "We have our orders. Why the Leader wanted us to retreat, I don't know, but it's wise to do as he says." He took a second to stroke her face. "I won't risk angering the Leader. Not with you around. As long as I do what he wants without question, he might let me hold onto you."

Sakura closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. All too soon he pulled his hand away, looking in the direction of Deidara's explosions.

"Deidara won't seriously harm any of your friends; those bombs are just to cover our escape." Sasori assured her, and then began dragging her in the opposite direction of her friends.

"Sasori!" Deidara flew up on one of his clay birds. "Sakura! Hop on!"

Without hesitating, Sasori grabbed Sakura and threw her up to Deidara. She yelped as Deidara caught her non-too-gently.

"Come on Sasori, un! What are you waiting for, yeah?" Deidara cried out in frustration. Then Deidara felt what Sasori must have sensed. Sakura felt it too.

Naruto was breaking free of Sasori's strings.

Deidara cursed. "Come on Sasori-danna!"

"I'll hold them off." Sasori said calmly, turning to face the Leaf ninjas.

Sakura gasped and lunged in Sasori's direction, but Deidara clamped a firm hand on her shoulder and pulled her back. "We're too high for you to be jumping off, yeah! Sasori can handle himself, un!"

Sakura knew better. Naruto was stronger than any normal ninja. He could probably take out three Akatsuki members at the same time. Plus if her friends continued to fight Sasori's hold while Naruto fought him, Sasori would loose concentration, and then he'd be fighting six ninjas, all powerful in their own way!

"Not against Naruto!" Sakura pleaded Deidara. "Naruto is the most powerful ninja in Konoha!"

"So little faith in Sasori, un." Deidara clucked, but his eyes flashed with apprehension. Maybe he should stay, in case Sasori needed back up.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Sasori felt the kyuubi host exerting unbelievable amounts of willpower against his chakra strings. This boy was something else. He could see why Sakura was so anxious of them fighting.

The thought of Sakura reminded him just why he had made such an idiotic move. He would not allow these incompetent Konoha ninjas to take her away from him. Sasori would end this fight quickly; he was already impatient to get back to Sakura.

Finally that ingrate Naruto broke free of Sasori's control and rushed at him, creating several clones in the process.

Sasori snapped out a scroll and brought forth his latest army of puppets. Naruto and his clones widened their eyes at the sight of so many whirring blades and flying poisoned needles. The boy's eyes snapped back and forth, remembering that his comrades were still frozen in plain sight.

Creating more clones, Naruto used his clones to push his friends to the ground, the clones poofed as they took the damage aimed at his friends. Naruto defended himself easily enough from the rain of poisoned senbon, not one scratch on him.

Naruto glanced down at the sound of hissing, and saw the poison on the senbons around him burning the grass. His blue eyes widened in realization as he remembered the account of how puppet masters fought. Poison was a specialty.

Sasori watched curiously as Naruto created more clones and had them bring his friends below ground.

'Smart move.' He thought. 'But I'm only trying to disable you, boy.'

With a flick of a finger, thirty puppets rushed towards Naruto. For a broad person like Naruto, he sure was fast. Sasori's fingers blurred with their speed, and he smiled triumphantly as a blade nicked Naruto.

'That's all I need.' Sasori thought with a mental smirk, though he kept himself calm and alert for any unprecedented interruptions. And then it there was one.

A clone appeared out of the smoke and sent a Rasengan his way. Sasori easily dodged it, taking out the clone with a kunai, but his concentration wavered. He cursed as he felt two more of his captives break free.

Wind blew, and the smoke from Deidara's bombs blew out of his sight again, and Sasori saw one of the Leaf ninjas, one with spiky brown hair and narrowed eyes, kneeling next to the collapsed Naruto. Sasori smirked. His latest poison was the fastest he'd ever made.

Suddenly the wind shifted and Sasori hear the tell-tale chirping of the Chidori that Itachi's younger brother was known for. Without another thought Sasori transported himself behind a nearby boulder, Sasuke's hand ripping though the puppet Sasori had left in his place.

The younger Uchiha swore and swung around, searching the area with his Sharingan. Sasori knew that he's have to disrupt Sasuke's sight before his Sharingan was able to locate him. With that in mind, Sasori sent what remained of his earlier thirty puppets, now nineteen, to attack the raven haired boy.

Without breaking concentration Sasori turned to check up on Naruto and the other jounin.

Shikamaru helped Naruto in a sitting position, eyes flicking worriedly at the sheen of sweat that already covered Naruto's skin. Thankfully, Shikamaru always carried a small gift from Tsunade wherever he went. Pulling out the vial, Shikamaru inserted the needle into Naruto's arm. The blonde moaned. Shikamaru rolled his eyes. The demon host could handle an army, but when it came to needles, Naruto would run screaming.

The vial itself was nothing too special. Just a little something Tsunade made that would stop the effects of almost every known poison for about an hour or so. It was supposed to be used for the purpose of transporting the victim to a competent medic, not forestalling a poison during battle. Tsunade would be livid.

Shikamaru felt the shift in air before flattening himself and Naruto to the ground while a large blade hissed through the air where their heads had been before. Shikamaru sent a minor earth jutsu at the puppet, crushing its wooden skin with a bunch of boulders. Next to him Naruto was grumbling about the dirt in his mouth as he regained use of his limbs.

"Come on, Naruto, we need to move!" Shikamaru growled.

Naruto climbed unsteadily to his feet while Shikamaru defended him from five more puppets. Once Naruto was able to sense his chakra again, he shook his head and joined Shikamaru in fighting the puppets.

"How do we defeat this guy? These puppets are everywhere, and I can't sense him anywhere!" Naruto growled.

"We need to get to Sasuke." Shikamaru gritted out while his mind worked through possible plans.

Fighting through an increasing horde of puppets, Shikamaru and Naruto eventually made their way to Sasuke.

"Can you tell where he is?" Shikamaru asked the Uchiha.

Sasuke clenched his teeth as he dodged a katana and obliterated the puppet using it with a fireball. "Not when he keeps throwing these puppets at me!"

Shikamaru and Naruto understood immediately and put Sasuke between them as he concentrated on scanning the area around them.

Sasori smirked and increased the speed of his puppets.

Naruto gasped as the puppets suddenly doubled in speed, both he and Shikamaru struggling to maintain defense while not getting scratched by the poisoned blades. One puppet drew back and its hands snapped back to reveal flamethrowers.

"Sasuke!" Naruto called.

All three ninjas leapt out of the way of the flames, the puppet following their paths with its arms. The flames licked up the ground behind them as the jumped over and under puppets to keep away from the flames. Sasuke spun around and performed a water jutsu, putting out the flames. But at the same time another puppet leapt overhead and sent out a cloud of poison gas. Naruto deflected the gas cloud with his air jutsu, but the gas was heavier than a normal gas.

The three were forced to hold their breath for almost fifteen seconds, long enough for their bodies to use up the oxygen it needed for muscle movement. As a result, their reactions were slower when the puppet master sent ten more puppets at them.

They escaped the puppets' weapons, but their landings were unstable, bringing them to their knees. Sasuke blocked a hit from a kunai as he leaped back onto his feet, panting. The puppet holding the kunai pulled back, and Sasuke's eyes widened when he realized the reason why the puppet was so close. Coming out of its torso, was a coil of steel. The tentacle wrapped around him with blinding speed, smashing Sasuke against the ground.

"SASUKE!" Naruto bellowed.

"Naruto get down!" Shikamaru warned as a pair of chains came flying at them. Naruto and Shikamaru leaped into the air, but the chains were snapped up and one wrapped around Shikamaru's ankle.

"Shit!" Shikamaru cursed as he was yanked downwards.

Five more puppets intercepted Naruto while he was still in the air, and he sustained a couple cuts as he threw a Rasengan into their midst, obliterating the five puppets.

Sasori frowned. He was down to fifty puppets. That was half of the puppets he had just created. This was disappointing.

Whatever that other Leaf nin had given Naruto, it was keeping the effects of his poison at bay. Sasori wasn't happy about that either. Although, he supposed that after this battle he should look into this new antidote or whatever it was. Another target might have something like it, and Sasori would have to make a new poison that would resist such effects. He sighed. More work.

Sasuke, meanwhile, lost his temper. Not only had he lost Itachi tonight, but they hadn't even found any signs of Sakura. Tonight was a bad night. Swearing at the puppet that was repeatedly slamming him into the hard ground.

"Motherfucker!" Sasuke cursed as he shot out electricity from his body. The metal wrapped around his torso acted as a conduit towards the puppet. The puppet jolted before exploding. Landing unsteadily, Sasuke drove his kusanagi into the ground and took two breaths. He could already feel the bruises on his back.

He looked up to find Shikamaru in a similar predicament, and ran to help him. The puppet holding Shikamaru was wrapping its chains around Shikamaru, obviously trying to cut off circulation to his limbs and air to his throat. Shikamaru was already turning purple. Sasuke ran electricity down his sword and slashed at the chains. The chains collapsed as the chakra controlling them was severed, and Shikamaru dropped to his knees, gasping for air.

Sasuke could see the bruises already forming on the man's neck. Without hesitating, Sasuke turned, his hands blurring.

"Katon!" he cried out the jutsu, alighting the puppet, which then collapsed. The other puppets were being concentrated on Naruto for the moment, so Sasuke quickly swept the area for the puppet master.

THERE!

Sasuke's Sharingan locked onto his target.

Sasori felt the moment the young Uchiha set his Sharingan on him. The boy was very adept with his blood limit. But not nearly as good as Itachi.

Sasori didn't bother looking in the direction of Sasuke, knowing the boy would try to catch him with the Sharingan. Only a few more minutes and all three of his enemies would be too low on chakra to fight.

Naruto used his clones to push himself out of the way of the suicide puppets, and landed next to Sasuke, Shikamaru behind them, struggling to get to his feet.

"We… n-need a plan!" Naruto panted.

Shikamaru got to his feet, wincing as he placed a hand on his throat. Sasuke and Naruto sent a wind-fire combo into the latest wave of puppets Sasori had sent at them, and the surviving puppets were quickly dispatched, though at the cost of more chakra.

"We can't k-keep-" Naruto gulped for more air. "-this up."

Sasuke nodded, panting as well. Sweat dripped down his back. He had never fought a puppet master before; he had always scoffed at such a fighting style. Though now he was regretting his lack of experience now that he was facing the greatest puppet master that ever lived, Sasori of the Red Sand.

"Sasuke, what's the puppet master's location?" Shikamaru asked.

"Behind that boulder over there." Sasuke indicated.

Naruto and Sasuke could see the thoughts flitting through Shikamaru's head at light-speed.

"Okay, here's what we'll do…"

Sasori glanced behind him in surprise as he leaped out of his cover. Where he had crouched was now obliterated by a very large fireball. He mentally chastised Sasuke for wasting precious chakra.

But just as he touched his feet to the ground, a dark movement caught his eye. Sasori's eyes widened at the sight of a black streak darting across the ground and connecting to his shadow. Suddenly his limbs were frozen, yet his hold over the other Leaf nins was still connected to his fingers.

"RASENGAN!"

"CHIDORI!"

Sasori's eyes widened.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

The world seemed to become silent as everything moved in slow motion.

Sakura opened her mouth.

The wind and lightning attacks drove into flesh.

His beautiful body went sailing backwards.

Sakura felt her lungs burn and her throat rip. She barely registered why until it hit her.

"_**SASORI!"**_

Wind rushed into her face, stinging her eyes as the ground rose to meet her. Deidara was cursing in the background, and Sakura barely noticed his bombs sending thick clouds into the sky, keeping Naruto and the others at bay.

She stumbled off the bird and ran towards the beautiful mangled body.

_No._

Knees burned as dirt ripped into skin, shredding her knees as she landed beside him.

_No._

Her chakra was unusually unstable as she began to heal him.

_No._

Red.

Red like his hair.

His beautiful red curls.

_No._

His eyes were locked on hers, gorgeous angelic eyes, still so lazy and peaceful.

Brown.

Brown with gold flecks.

Always.

_No._

She felt his familiar touch on her cheek. What was he doing? Oh. Tears. He was… wiping her tears.

_No._

What did he think he was doing? She glared at the masculine hands that wrapped around hers as she tried to heal him. Couldn't he see what she was doing? Wait-

Why was he pulling her hands away? He needed healing!

_No…_

How could he smile at her like that? HOW?

_No… No…_

'I can't breathe.' She noticed vaguely as her body trembled.

Was that why her chest felt like it was going to explode?

More chakra.

She pumped more chakra into her beloved.

_No… NO!_

The earth shook. No. She was shaking.

Violent sobs wracked her body as she leaned over Sasori, her fingers trying to escape his grasp as she kept pumping the chakra into him.

_Oh god… oh god no… Please no…_

She felt his hand wrap around her neck, pulling her down towards him.

His kiss.

Always _his_ kiss. Forever.

Bitter. Sweet. Sad. Lovely.

She kissed back as if she were dying. And maybe she was.

And then-

His hand dropped away.

_Thud._

Her body jerked at the sound of his hand hitting the ground.

_THUD._

Screeching as his head landed on the ground.

_Thud._

A faint heartbeat.

His mouth was moving. What was he saying? She couldn't hear. Why? Oh… She was screaming. Sakura closed her mouth, biting her lip until it bled.

"_**I will always love you.**_" He smiled that aggravating, frustrating calm smile, so cocky and arrogant, and- and- and- so _perfect_... "_**…always be with you…**_"

_NO! No no no no no no no…_

Horror filled her as his eyes glazed over.

_Thud._

_Thud._

_Nothing._

Pain.

Burning, searing pain.

Screeching.

Screaming and wailing.

A banshee.

Sakura couldn't seem to find the word to describe what she was feeling. All that was left was a void. An unbearably painful void. Her heart was ripped right out of her chest and she couldn't get it back.

He was gone.

_**NO!**_

She stared down at his face. How could he still look so angelic? How? HOW?

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" Sakura gasped, running her shaky hands over his face, his shoulders, his chest. Pumping copious amounts of her chakra into his body, not even trying to heal his wounds anymore, just trying to somehow shock his heart into beating again.

But the familiar thumping, a heartbeat so in tune with her own- was gone.

"DAMMIT! DON'T YOU DARE!" she yelled at him, hitting his chest weakly with her fists, clenched so tightly that her finger nails drew blood from her palms.

"Sasori…" she sobbed. "You said…" she choked on her words. "You said you'd never leave me…"

Staring into his eyes, his eyes staring at nothing and everything. Another sob wracked her body as she stared at those beautifully long lashes. His eyes had always been brown flecked with gold. Now his eyes were dull. Staring at her. Cupping his cheek, Sakura reached up two fingers and closed his eyes.

"C-come back S-sasori…" she pleaded. "D-don't l-leave me…"

The tears were running in rivulets of fire down her cheek. Her mind was in shock. This can't… this couldn't…

_Impossible…_

_Can't be happening… not possible… couldn't really be happening… bad dream… not real… impossible…_

"Sasori…" she whispered hoarsely. "P-please… I know you're stronger than this…"

Dammit! He couldn't do this to her! No! No, no, no, no, no…

"_Oh god nooooo…" _Sakura moaned with her voice cracking.

She slumped over Sasori's body, pressing herself into his bloodied chest, trying to ignore the gaping hole in his stomach.

"Don't leave. Don't leave me. Don't leave…" she whispered.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"Dammit." Deidara muttered. He couldn't keep those Konoha bastards at bay for long. The temptation to kill them was so strong, but he knew he had to get Sakura to safety.

His bird swooped around and headed towards said pinkette.

"Oh." He gasped. "Oh no."

Her screams sent chills down his spine. Deidara leaped off his bird and landed next to her.

"Sakura… we need to go…"

"NO!" she screeched, clutching onto Sasori's body.

Deidara looked on sadly. The poor girl was covered head to toe in her lover's blood. For once, he felt sorry for someone.

She moaned and wailed while rocking Sasori in her arms.

"Can't be happening to me… Not real… Just… A dream…" she mumbled and kept shaking her head in denial.

"Sakura…" Deidara whispered. He looked up to see the smoke beginning to fade. They had to escape before the Leaf ninjas saw this.

Deidara clenched his jaw and grabbed Sakura's waist.

"NO!" she screeched, elbowing him. Deidara gritted his teeth at the force of her inhuman strength. "LET ME GO! LET! ME! GO!"

Sakura clawed at Sasori's body, clutching onto it for dear life. "Don't… Don't make me leave him…" she sobbed softly. Deidara nearly dropped her at the sound of such helplessness, such vulnerability.

Oh he would kill those Leaf bastards for putting Sakura through this!

"Sakura we need to leave!" Deidara pleaded with her.

She shook her head vigorously. Deidara hated to do it, but he snatched her away form Sasori before she could strengthen her hold on the body, leaping onto the bird with her kicking and screaming in his arms. He would have some nasty bruises after this.

Wrapping his arms around hers to keep her almost-still, Deidara directed the bird away. Anger burned in the pit of his stomach that they didn't have time to take Sasori's body. It would hinder them in the retreat.

Sakura didn't stop struggling.

"Are you trying to leap off the damn bird?" Deidara demanded.

She didn't answer, but kept staring at the red blotch marring the land as they drew away from Sasori's body. Eventually they could no longer see the battleground, but she kept staring, going limp in Deidara's arms.

Deidara glanced down worriedly at her.

Pulling her closer in an embrace, he stroked her hair, pink strands matted with Sasori's blood. "Sakura… I'm sorry… I'm so, so sorry…"

* * *

><p><strong>Please don't kill meh...<strong>

**REVIEW PLEASE ^_^**

**fangirl: HOW CAN YOU SMILE SO CHEERFULLY WHEN YOU JUST KILLED SASORI? *sharpens nails***

**Me: Oh shit. RUUUUUN!**


	13. Chapter 13

_Chapter Thirteen: What Is Left?_

_Wake up my love._

_She groaned._

_There was a chuckle as she felt strong hands and slender but deft fingers weave through her hair. After a couple tugs the fingers had gotten all the knots out and was absently combing through her hair. Another chuckle._

_Wake up my love._

_Her hands came up to cup his face._

_I don't want to wake up._

_Another chuckle._

_Just want to stay in bed?_

_She smiled up at the angel above her._

_In bed with you, love._

_His body shifted as he pulled her on top of him. Her loving fingers traced the indents of muscle on his chest, making the man beneath her swell with pride. She always caught her breath at the sight of his body. A beautiful, perfect body with angelic eyes and the most handsome head of curls. And it was, in essence, her creation._

_A masterpiece._

_Hm?_

_I called you a masterpiece._

_Oh really?_

_You're body is the art. Not some puppet._

_You're such a doll._

_Shut up._

_I love you, my love._

_Oh those lips. His lips were heaven. His kiss made all her fears go away, all her worries ceased. Nothing else in the world mattered when he kissed her like this, like a dying man, like if he didn't kiss her then the world, his world, would fall apart. And she was the same. She chuckled._

_What is it, my love?_

_I was just thinking-_

_Oh dear._

_Hush! I was just thinking that we act like sex-deprived teenagers._

_Technically, we are teenagers._

_No, you're old._

_Tch! Stop calling me that!_

_Giggles._

_Well if we are sex-deprived, then I wonder what we should do now._

_Huh?_

_My Sakura…_

_She gasped as he rolled over on top of her and began blazing a trail of fiery kisses along her jaw, down her throat, and through the valley of her breast, his curly hair tickling across her flat stomach as he swirled his tongue in her bellybutton before boldly kissing even lower until he teasingly snipped at her naked hip. She moaned in appreciation._

_He came back to cover her body with his, fitting perfectly against her like to pieces of a puzzle, their contours clicking together as if they were made for each other. Leaving his mark all over her neck and chest, he finally nuzzled into the crook of her neck and inhaled._

_So impatient._

_When it comes to you, my love, I don't want to wait._

_This time she chuckled. His curls were so boyish and yet his scent, his body, his deep, deep voice was so masculine it sent shivers down her spine. Pulling lightly at the curls she kissed hi cheek, and down his neck, her other hand stroking the strong muscles of his back, still slightly sweaty from the night before._

_I love you, Sasori._

_And I love you._

_Never leave me?_

_Not for the world. I will never leave you, my love._

Sakura opened her eyes. There was a sharp ache in her chest that ricocheted and bounced around with each breath, leaving a hole where her heart had been. Half expecting a blade sticking out of her, Sakura glanced down.

The first thing she saw was blood. Her blood? No. A quick scan of her fingers told her she was fine.

She reached over to her right, expecting her hand to find her angel sleeping next to her. But her hand just keeps reaching on.

And then she realizes she's not on a bed. There's only ground. And she can't see the ceiling. There's only sky. And there's no _Sasori_. There's only… nothing. She drops her hand.

_**Thud**__._

_Thud._

_Thud._

_Thud._

A heartbeat. So she wasn't dead.

But that can't be right. Because Sasori- _NoNoNoNoNo_– was dead. He was- _NoNoNoNoNo_- gone. _Gone_. She can't still have a heartbeat while Sasori has none.

_Thud._

_Thud._

_Thud._

No, she can't have a heartbeat because Sasori was not here, not there, not _anywhere,_ and she _could__not__ever__live__without__him_, because he was everything to her, _everything_, so how dare he leave without her, how dare he _dies_ without taking her soul with him, _how__**dare**__he__leave__her__alone_ in this cruel, cruel world, and taking her heart with him, leaving a void that can never be filled, an ache, a wound that bleeds and will never stop, and _how_ in the world is she not dead from this pain, _this__pain__the__will__**never**__cease_ because-

Because-

Because-

_**He is gone.**_

Oh God…

_NoNoNoNoNoNo…_

And for the first time in two, almost three years…

_A__tear__rolls__down__her__cheek._

It burns like fire, brands like ice, slow and painful like poison, seeping from her eyelids and down across the bridge of her nose, and onto her other cheek. Sakura continues to stare blankly at the ground, not bothering to get up. What was the point when her world was gone.

_**He**__**is**__**gone.**_

"_But__you__said__you__would__never__leave__me__…"_ She whispers to into the dirt, the dirt that buries her lover, to the earth that will return his body to its beginnings, and to the sky that watched his death and thought nothing of it.

Sasori.

_Sasori._

_**Sasori.**_

You said you'd never leave.

But you are gone.

Only one tear escaped Sakura. The rest seemed to be stuck inside her, the pain of the loss, the grief too much for even those drops of fire to handle. Red colored her sight in a haze as stabbing ripped through her and Sakura opened her mouth in a silent scream, yet was unable to create a sound. The whole world was silent and still as the pain roared through her veins, overtaking her senses, this feeling building up inside her that was too much to bare, too much, _too,__too__much__to__bare_, this grief that was so completely overwhelming her being with its entirety.

This sorrow that was engulfing her in such a way she had never thought possible. Sakura had no idea that a human body could feel so much emotional and physical pain from such a loss, and she was surprised her body hadn't completely just shut down.

How?

'_You__can__'__t__be__gone,__you__**can**__**'**__**t**__**possibly**__**be**__gone,__you__**said**__**you**__**wouldn**__**'**__**t**__**leave,**__**that**__you__would__never__leave,__never__**ever**__leave__me__**me.**_' And for the first time since she could remember, Sakura realized her mind was one with Inner Sakura. The pain and shock seemed to have melded them together, she noted absently.

_My__dear__Sasori,__**come**__**back**__**…**_

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Deidara watched as Sakura became aware of the world again, slowly and hesitantly. First her body was relaxed and her hand lazily grasped for something beside her. When she didn't find it, her whole being stiffened, and he watched as the pain and shock set in. He deduced that she had been reaching for Sasori.

All three of his mouths gritted their teeth. Konoha bastards.

Sakura didn't bother to get up. Deidara wasn't really keen on facing the grieving kunoichi, he was never good with emotions like pity or comfort. The thoughts didn't stop him from admiring Sakura's beauty, the same beauty Sasori had no doubt seen, and Deidara for once agreed with Sasori on at least one piece of art.

But now Sasori was gone, for good this time. A comrade, rival, and- dare he say it, a _friend_- was gone.

And Deidara was stuck with his girl. If only things had been different, Deidara mused. If Sakura had been anyone else's girl, whether Itachi-bastard or even the goddamn Leader, Deidara wouldn't have thought twice about jumping her. But she was Sasori's girl. That alone was why Deidara never pursued her. Of course he had flirted every now and then, but in the end, this was _Sasori__'__s__girl_, practically a sister-in-law or some other crap.

Deidara ran his fingers through his hair. He had to contact the rest of the Akatsuki. They'd be looking for them- Sasori and him. He'd have to tell them about Sasori…

And what about Sakura? She wasn't a member, though she meant something to almost all of the Akatsuki members. But the Leader wouldn't want her now that she was of no use. She had been Sasori's prisoner after all.

Suddenly the mental image of Sasori and Sakura playing some sort of pretend-torture sex game came to mind. Deidara quickly squashed the thoughts. Now was an _entirely__inappropriate_ time to be thinking such things!

Deidara stood and glanced at the sky, guessing that it was about nine in the morning- three hours since they escaped the Leaf nins. This was supposed to have been a quick rest stop, but when Sakura had fallen asleep amidst her crying, Deidara decided to leave her to some aspect of peace. He didn't hear much, but from some of her mumbling in her sleep, he could tell she had been dreaming of being with Sasori. It only made him feel even worse for her.

He needed to get away form this girl. She was like a dark rain cloud with torrents of suffering washing off of her, and with each wave he was more and more tempted to fly right back to those Konoha bitches and blow them to oblivion.

Deidara shook his head and went to look for some water.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Listening to Deidara's footsteps fade, Sakura opened her eyes and let out a slow, shuddering breath.

_I__never__left,__my__love._

"Sasori?" her voice croaked. Pain shot through her throat, telling her that her screaming in the earlier dawn hours had strained her vocal cords.

_Always__here._

"Don't leave me again." She whimpered, closing her eyes.

_I__didn__'__t__leave.__Don__'__t__say__such__things,__doll._

"I can't see you…" she whispered.

_Your__eyes__are__closed._

Sakura felt her mouth twitch into a smile at the sound of his warm chuckles.

_There__'__s__nothing__left__in__the__Akatsuki__for__you,__my__love._

"I can't exactly go back to Konoha." She mumbled.

_Why__not?_

"Because they killed you! And because I fell in love with you! I betrayed them!" she whispered sadly, voice cracking on several words.

_They__killed__me__thinking__they__were__protecting__you.__Sakura,__we__are__all__shinobi.__This__is__the__life__we__signed__up__for__when__we__first__put__on__our__headbands.__Your__friends__were__only__doing__their__jobs.__I__do__not__blame__them._

"You're… okay with this?" she asked in surprised, never once opening her eyes.

_Yes.__And__no__one__knows__about__you__and__me__except__the__Akatsuki__members,__and__Konoha__is__unlikely__to__listen__to__them._

"Sasori-"

_You__need__to__go__home,__my__love.__It__'__s__all__you__have__left._

"There's nothing left of me without you." She cried softly.

_Be__strong,__little__girl.__I__am__always__with__you.__Always._

Sakura cried softly, curling herself into a ball. Her mind was so cruel. Re-creating Sasori in her head like Inner Sakura. And yet she couldn't bring herself to acknowledge it was only Inner Sakura trying to comfort her because for now, she just wanted to pretend that it was Sasori.

Sleep began beckoning, soothing Sakura with promises of peace and sweet oblivion. Allowing it to overtake her senses, Sakura missed the quiet comment of Inner Sakura.

'_**That**__**wasn**__**'**__**t**__**me**__**…'**_

And hour later Sakura's eyes shot open to the sound of Deidara approaching. Slowly, she sat up, every muscle in her body sore and aching for Sasori. She watched with a blank face as Deidara drew nearer, looking increasingly nervous at the sight of her blank expression mixed with puffy red eyes.

"How do ya feel, yeah?" he asked her, the tongues on his hands licking their lips in nervousness.

"Fine." She said in a barely audible voice.

Deidara nodded. "We need to get moving before those Konoha bastards catch up with us."

Sakura glanced in the same direction he was looking. Her previous conversation with Sasori's voice (her imagination she was sure), reminded her that she couldn't go with the Akatsuki.

"Leave me here." She ordered quietly.

"W-What?" he asked, his one visible blue eye widening.

"Let them take me." Sakura said quietly.

"But Sakura…" Deidara shook his head. "I'm going to take care of you! Sasori-"

"There is nothing left for me with the Akatsuki without Sasori." Sakura interrupted, fighting to keep herself calm. "I don't know what I'll do when I get back… I can't look at my… friends… the same way, but I know they were only doing what they thought was right."

Deidara's hands were clenched.

Sakura saw he was about to protest again. "I won't join the Akatsuki. So what is left for me there?"

Deidara's face fell. "You… are right."

"Leave me here then." Sakura said as she finally found the strength to stand. "You go."

He hesitated. Then the blonde stepped forward and embraced Sakura, and she didn't hesitate to hug the Akatsuki member. Deidara rested his chin on her head as Sakura buried her face in his chest, inhaling his scent of clay and earth.

"You know…" Deidara began as they pulled away, though they still had their arms around the other. "If it weren't for Sasori… there could have been something between us, un."

Sakura stared into his eyes, a spark of what could have been in his blue eyes, a future that never begun. Her heart skipped a beat, but not in affection, only surprise that, yes, Deidara was right. A small smile, tainted by sorrow, curved on her lips.

"Wouldn't that have been interesting." She said softly, giving Deidara a small peck on the cheek. "Thank you. For… everything."

Deidara actually blushed and put a hand on his cheek. "Un… No problem… yeah…" he stuttered.

Sakura laughed sadly.

Then he seemed to come back to himself as a mischievous grin appeared and he held up his hands to show them sticking their tongues out. "You really missed out. These things are great for sex."

Though sorrow still pressed down on her from every direction, Sakura somehow managed to smile at Deidara, giving one small laugh.

"Thank you." She whispered. _For__making__me__laugh.__For__being__silly.__For__being__… __you._

Sakura glanced in the direction they had come from. "Tell the others… I'll miss them."

Deidara nodded solemnly.

"And tell Itachi… to forgive himself. It was never his fault in the first place." Sakura whispered.

Deidara gave her a questioning look.

"He'll know what I'm talking about." Sakura assured him as she started making shooing gestures. "Now go."

He hesitated. Then Deidara smothered her in one last hug before leaping onto his clay bird. "See ya some other time, un! That's a promise, yeah!"

Sakura watched sadly as her friend flew away, watched until Deidara's clay bird was too far and too high for her to spot it. By then she could already just feel the presence of chakra on the edges of her awareness, still too far away for any normal shinobi to sense. But with Sakura's medical hyper-awareness of chakra, she knew she had picked up on Naruto's signature maybe twenty minutes before he or any of the others would be able to sense her.

Flashes of Sasori's death instantly assaulted her mind as-

"_No, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" Sakura gasped, running her shaky hands over his face, his shoulders, his chest…_

The second tear since Sasori's death slid down her left cheeks, this time it was unnoticed. She took a deep breath as-

"_RASENGAN!"_

"_CHIDORI!"_

_The wind and lightning attacks drove into flesh._

_His beautiful body went sailing backwards._

Letting out the breath with a shudder, Sakura realized she was falling to her knees-

_Knees burned as dirt ripped into skin, shredding her knees as she landed beside him._

She still couldn't believe he was gone. If she closed her eyes she could maybe pretend it was all just a dream-

_**Impossible…**_

_**Can't be happening… not possible… couldn't really be happening… bad dream… not real… impossible…**_

"_Sasori…" she whispered hoarsely. "P-please… I know you're stronger than this…"_

Sakura let out a sob as she hugged herself, curling up on the ground. The cold, cold ground.

_There__was__a__dark__red__blotch__on__the__ground__as__they__rose__higher__into__the__sky,__Sasori__'__s__lifeblood__marring__the__landscape__as__clouds__of__smoke__from__Deidara__'__s__explosives__drifted__its__lazy__tendrils__along__the__dirt__surrounding__him.__She__shouldn__'__t__have__been__able__to__see__the__way__the__wind__tangled__his__curls__from__how__far__away__she__was.__Shouldn__'__t__have__been__able__to__see__the__twisted,__mangled__torso__as__if__she__were__standing__right__next__to__him__instead__of__being__hundreds__of__feet__away__and__above__the__ground,__being__taken__further__and__further__away__from__her__dead__beloved__…_

Sakura gasped as more sobs wracked her body.

"_Sakura… I'm sorry… I'm so, so sorry…" Deidara's voice tried to soothe her as they flew away, and she eventually just rested her head on his shoulder, wishing for all the world it was Sasori…_

Sasori's blood still covered her. Sakura ran her fingers across the clothes, still sticky in many parts. It had only been hours since she had been pressed against the warm, muscular body of Sasori, wrapping his curls around her fingers. Maybe if she closed her eyes she could pretend that this morning never happened, that she was still in bed with her beloved, rubbing her chest as he rumbled in pleasure…

But then six chakra signatures burst through her delirious haze, and Sakura realized they had sensed her. No running now. Quickly, she stilled her sobs and let a blank mask fall into place. Her body stopped shaking and went lax; her mind began to wander…

_I__will__never__leave__you,__Sakura._

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"I sense her!" Ino yelled to the others.

Everyone put on a burst of speed, quickly sensing Sakura's fluctuating chakra signature for themselves. Neji and Hinata activated their Byakugan and began watching for her pulse. Naruto gritted his teeth, hoping they would make it.

"I see her!" Hinata's soft voice gasped. Everyone heard and allowed the Hyuuga heiress to take the lead.

The trees abruptly stopped in what looked like an abandoned field, the ground supporting only a few sad looking plants that drooped under the hot sun. It was easy to spot a body lying on the ground, pink hair strewn about. Pausing only long enough to determine the location of Sakura, then to make sure it wasn't a trap, they all rushed to Sakura's side.

Sasuke, being the fastest, got there first, but was quickly followed by Ino, of all people. It would seem the blonde girly-girl used those long legs for more than just seduction missions. Shikamaru marveled at the fact that he'd never seen his teammate move so fast.

Sasuke had been about to reach out to Sakura's form when he found himself being pushed roughly aside by none other than Yamanaka. Too surprised to react, he watched as Ino and Hinata crouched protectively around their friend.

"We are the medics here." Ino said none too nicely to Sasuke.

Hinata didn't even give him an apologetic smile like she would have for anyone else, just ignored him as her hands glowed with healing chakra and began scanning Sakura's body.

Neji, Shikamaru, and Naruto gaped at Ino and Hinata's change in demeanor.

Inside, Ino and Hinata were angry. Actually, Ino was _fuming_. How _dare_he? When did Sasuke have the right to touch Sakura after what he did to her? He shouldn't be so much as allowed to _look_ at her!

Quickly scanning Sakura's body, they found no wounds. Ino, though, noticed Sakura's eyes. They were open. And yet, Sakura had not jumped up and hugged Ino or Naruto, or even that bastard Sasuke.

"Sakura?" Ino asked gently, leaning over Sakura's face and brushing strands of pink out of the girl's face. "Sakura, answer me."

"S-Sakura, i-it's us. Y-Your f-friends!" Hinata hiccupped at the sight of Sakura in such a weak state.

Now everyone was worried as they looked at Sakura. Their missing friend had been found, and yet all Sakura did was stare at the sky with a blank face and distant eyes.

"Could she be stuck in a genjutsu?" Shikamaru asked.

Hinata shook her head and they all went quiet, not questioning the powers of the Hyuuga clan.

"Sakura-chan." Naruto whispered. "What did they do to you?"

"We should get her back to Konoha as quickly as possible." Neji's stern voice cut through the tension. "Naruto can carry her."

Everyone nodded, even the unhappy looking Sasuke. Ino stopped herself from smirking at his disgruntled face.

'Boy you are never getting her back without groveling on your knees for a couple months.' She thought smugly, pride in her friend swelling before realization crashed down as she remembered Sakura's condition.

"M-Maybe Tsunade w-will know w-what to d-do." Hinata whispered to Naruto, trying to comfort him.

Naruto nodded determinedly and they took off back to Konoha as fast as possible. Sasuke trailed behind them, reluctantly at first, but none of the others really cared if he came back to Konoha with them or not, they only thought of a certain pinkette.

And maybe that's why Sasuke decided to follow them anyway.

* * *

><p><strong>Just edited this chappie... Sasuke is dumb. For realz. ^^ but I love SasuSaku anywayz!<strong>


	14. Chapter 14

_Chapter Fourteen: Ghosts_

_Sakura….._

_Sakura…_

_Sakura._

_I love you._

_I will never leave you._

_Sakura._

_Sakura…_

_Sakura….._

"Stop…" she sobbed softly. But his voice echoed in her head. His voice was so soothing… his affections hidden under layers of seemingly bored and lazy tones.

_Don't cry…_

"No… You're dead…" she whispered.

_I will never leave you._

Sakura screamed and stabbed a kunai into her thigh, hoping this was some horrible, cruel genjutsu. But as blood seeped out and there was no change, she knew it was something worse: _Reality._

Everyone stopped setting up camp and rushed over to where Sakura sat in the darkest shadow of the forest.

Their friend and comrade had been quiet throughout their entire trip back to Konoha. They had would reach the village early the next day, and had decided to camp in order to be rested when facing Tsunade's wrath. They had, after all, gone to save Sakura without notifying her.

"Sakura! What are you doing?" Hinata gasped and grabbed the Sakura's arm before she could send the kunai into her thigh once more. Hinata placed a glowing green hand on Sakura and began healing the thigh.

_Sakura…_

Their old friend stared up at them with pain in her eyes, pain that they could see she was trying desperately to suppress. She still said nothing.

Ino knelt by her best friend and wrapped her arms around Sakura's body, leaning her blonde head against Sakura's temple. Ino didn't know why Sakura was so sad or in so much pain, but she wanted to be there for the pinkette.

Throughout the trip back, Ino had observed Sakura more carefully than the others, and that was saying something. Sakura's behavior was the opposite of the happy girl they all knew. Ino knew her better than anyone, save Naruto, but it took a female's knowledge to recognize the signs of denial. Severe denial.

'What happened to you, Forehead?' she thought sadly as she remained hugging Sakura while the others went back to setting up camp.

Ino hadn't missed the soft whispers Sakura murmured when the girl thought she was alone. Speaking to a voice Ino was unable to hear. And that worried Ino more than when Sakura had woken up one night screaming.

Ino hoped that dear Sakura hadn't been driven to insanity by those Akatsuki bastards or there would be hell to pay.

After Sakura had calmed down, the others went back to setting up camp, each person glancing worriedly over to Sakura. Ino remained with her arms around Sakura, rocking her best friend back and forth, murmurings small words of comfort.

_Don't cry my love._

Sakura squeezed her eyes shut.

_Please don't cry. You are prettier when you're smiling._

'It's not him, it's not him, it's not him…' Sakura told herself. Yet Sasori's voice would not go away. Maybe she didn't want it to go away. Maybe her subconscious was keeping it for comfort.

'So cruel… so cruel… I don't want to hear his voice… Reminding me of him… so cruel…' Sakura hid her face in Ino's shoulder, calming down as Ino stroked her hair gently.

"Sakura, sweetie, please say something." Ino whispered.

Sakura remained quiet. She couldn't find the strength to speak. It was as if her voice was gone, gone in the silence that screamed at her in Sasori's absence.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

The group neared the gates hesitantly. The gatekeepers had no doubt already spotted them, so they dared not stop approaching. Yet their steps slowed with dread.

Especially a certain Uchiha.

Sakura's eyes didn't register the gate leading to the village, or the familiar dirt road beneath their feet. Being held by Naruto, she didn't even notice his loud voice at such close proximity. She gazed unseeing at the sky above, remembering each and every detail of Sasori's face.

"So…" Shikamaru asked lazily, wounding as if he was about to yawn. "Who wants to be the first to face Tsunade's wrath and run ahead to inform her of our arrival?"

No one raise their hands.

"Fine." Shikamaru sighed. "Not it."

"NOT IT!"

"...Okay…" Shikamaru sighed. Plan A was a fail… "How about this: I am too lazy to go, Hinata still stutters too much under pressure,"- "S-Sorry!" - Ino would only run off and leave us to our doom," – Ino flicked him off – "Neji's conversation skills would only piss her off," – "Shut up Nara." – ", and don't even get me started on the Uchiha brat." – cue Uchiha glare.

"So I propose that since Naruto has so much goddamn luck, plus the resilience and stamina of the jinchuriki, I think he'd have the most luck surviving Tsunade."

"AGREED!"

Naruto could only stare at them forlornly. "…you guys are terrible…abandoning me to such a cruel fate…" A gloom settled over the blonde which everyone chose to ignore.

"Wait, so who will carry Sakura?" Naruto asked.

When Hinata and Ino saw Sasuke open his mouth, they jumped in.

"I will!"

"I-I should."

The girls looked at each other.

"Well," Ino turned back to the staring men. "Since you all have had turns to carry her" –_except for the Uchiha bastard_- "Hinata or I should have to carry her. Only fair." Ino and Hinata gave them their most innocent smiles.

"But… Not to be rude, but Sakura _is_ solid muscle." Naruto said slowly so as not to anger the women.

Hinata's eyes softened. "N-Naruto… look at how thin S-Sakura is." She pointed out quietly. "I d-don't think she weighs v-very much right now…"

Ino nodded sadly.

Naruto sighed and placed Sakura in Hinata's arms, the girl's blinking eyes the only sign that she was conscious. Ino gently brushed strands of pink hair out of the girl's face.

"Go on ahead Naruto." Ino motioned for him to get a move on.

Naruto's pout settled back in. "Oi, Teme, try not to cause _too_ much of a disruption while I'm off to certain death."

"Tch. Dobe." Sasuke muttered. He knew this was the time when he should escape. After all, who's to say the new Hokage wouldn't immediately order his death? He'd heard terrible stories about Tsunade-Hime, the Slug Princess and Godaime. And the fact that even Naruto's oblivious brain feared this woman said a lot. Wait, hadn't this woman trained Sakura?

The Uchiha glanced at the pink-haired girl. The next few moments were going to be some of the most uncertain in his life.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"NARUTO GET IN HERE! I SWEAR I'M GOING TO HANG YOU BY YOUR GENITALS FROM THE TOP OF HOKAGE TOWER!"

Naruto hid outside the office doors as a blur of color whirred past his head and slammed with the force of an elephant into the wall across the hall, and traveling through three more walls before the sake bottle even slowed down by a fraction.

"I think she's pissed…" Kakashi murmured without looking up from Icha-Icha as he leaned discreetly in the corner the hall and out of harms way.

Naruto gave Kakashi the 'that's-a-freakin'-understatement-you-are-insane" look.

"GET IN HERE BAKA! I SWEAR YOU ARE GOING TO REGRET THE DAY YOU WERE BORN!" Tsunade continued to rant and another object exploded through the wall, too close to Naruto's head for comfort.

Naruto flinched as he turned his head away from the flying plaster. When he looked back up, both he and Kakashi stared in horror at the stapler that had stapled itself halfway through the wall. They gave each other a 'holy-shit-mother-of-Kami' look.

"Naruto, I'm sorry that you never lived to become Hokage." Kakashi said solemnly before he transported out of the office, leaving Naruto to his untimely death.

"Wait! Kakashi-sensei! Don't leave meeee!" Naruto wailed helplessly. "Coward! Help me face this crazy grandma like a man!"

"I CAN HEAR YOU NARUTO!" _Oh shit._

Naruto slowly peeked his head around the corner of the doorway.

_Bam!_

He ducked just in time to avoid an oddly shaped paper weight.

"T-Tsunade… B-Baa-chan…"

She didn't answer but glared at him. Slowly she began to raise her arm, making Naruto flinched and squeeze his eyes shut. Nothing happened.

He opened his eyes and flinched again when he found Tsunade pointing at him. Slowly her finger curled, beckoning him to enter the lion's den. Saying a quick prayer, Naruto cautiously entered the room.

"Speak, Naruto." The Hokage said in a deathly soft voice.

Naruto shivered. "W-Well… Ya see…"

"SPEAK!" she boomed, making him jump.

"My team is coming back with Sasuke and Sakura because we strayed from our mission objective when we got information on where the Akatsuki might be hiding and thought we could resue Sakura which we did but we got in this hug efight with the Akatsuki and we killed Sasori but Sakura seems really ill-"

_Thonk!_

"Ow!" Naruto glared at the stack of post-its lying innocently on the floor, a large bump growing on his head.

"Speak audibly." Tsunade growled. "I heard 'Sasuke' then 'Sakura' than 'Akatsuki' then 'battle'."

Naruto rubbed his head, wincing at the soreness. "It would be better if Shikamaru or Neji told you…"

"And where are they?" Tsunade asked.

Naruto gulped. "At the gates by now I would think. With Sasuke… and Sakura."

…

…

…

Tsunade blinked. Then she gasped and tears shone in her eyes. "S-Sakura?"

Naruto smiled and nodded.

"She's back… Oh she's _back_!" Tsunade clasped her hands together. Then an aura of death surrounded her, and Naruto began to back away.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST TELL ME THIS FIVE MINUTES AGO?"

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Whispers flew through the village the moment Sasuke's face appeared on the horizon, the boy trailing behind the group of ninja. Sakura was held in Hinata's arms, shockingly thin compared to the girl everyone had known before her capture nearly half a year ago. The gatekeepers immediately sent word to the Hokage and the hospital.

"Ho-Hokage-sama!" the guards at the gate exclaimed in surprise as she suddenly appeared behind them, Naruto not too far behind her (with suspicious bruises on whatever skin was visible).

"Report." The Hokage ordered.

"H-Hai." They nodded.

"Six ninja, five Konoha-nins; Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Neji and Hinata, Yamanaka Ino, Haruno Sakura," at this all the ninjas present couldn't help the relief in their eyes, " And one known missing-nin of Konohagakure, Uchiha Sasuke."

"Haruno Sakura seems injured and is being carried by Hyuuga Hinata. We have already alerted the hospital."

Tsunade's eyes creased with worry. "Good." She nodded. "Send a message to the hospital that I'll be attending to Sakura myself."

One of the gatekeepers nodded and left. To many, being treated by the Hokage herself would be an honor, and Tsunade wouldn't have it any other way with Sakura. Naruto glanced at the approaching group as he came to stand beside Tsunade.

"I don't know what's wrong with her." He told Tsunade. "She wasn't injured when we found, other than a few scratches. Ino and Hinata both checked her, and said there were no injuries."

The boy sounded so lost. Tsunade's eyes softened. "Not all injuries are physical, Naruto."

The blonde boy nodded.

"I will help her though." Tsunade reassured him. "And she has the Konoha 11 to help her."

Naruto grinned. "You bet your ass she does!"

Tsunade gave him a disparaging look, and Naruto grinned through the blush on his cheeks. "Cheeky boy." She muttered.

They both turned to look out of the gates, the group now within hearing distance.

"I see you're still alive, Naruto!" Ino laughed.

Naruto glowered. "Not before she threatened my family jewels!" there were tears in his eyes. "YOU'RE ALL ASSHOLES!"

Several people within the group began to laugh, and Hinata's red face was visible behind Ino and Shikamaru.

"Okay you kids." Tsunade sighed, walking up to Hinata. She glanced down at Sakura and nearly gasped at the girl's state.

Sakura's hair was limp and no longer vibrant, the pink strands hanging sadly around her dull green eyes, blank and forlorn. Her body was shockingly thin compared to her usual lean muscle. The girl stared blankly at nothing in particular, the only sign she was even alive was the occasional blink and the rise and fall of her chest.

"Give her to me." Tsunade whispered, and a sad silence descended on the group as Hinata complied and placed Sakura in Tsunade's arms.

Without a word Tsunade led them to the hospital.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"Sakura… Oh my dear child, Sakura…" Tsunade murmured as she brushed strands of pink out of the girl's face as Sakura stared out the hospital window. Sakura had stayed in the hospital for a week now, and yet Tsunade hadn't found anything more than a scratch on the girl.

The blonde woman sat in the chair pulled up next to the bed and took Sakura's hand in her own. "Please, come back. Please…"

Headstrong as she was, all Tsunade really wanted to do right now was cry. This was not her Sakura. Those _damned_ Akatsuki took her Sakura away, and left them only with this shell of a girl. _The Akatsuki would pay._

"My dear child…" Tsunade stood and sat on the hospital bed, pulling an unresponsive Sakura into her arms and rocking the girl. "Tell why you're like this… Let me heal you… Oh Sakura…"

Sakura stared out the window as clouds drifted by.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Sakura looked at the stars. Night had fallen. It was her tenth night of sleeping in the hospital. The familiar echo of heels alerted her to the approach of her shisou, but she remained still.

_Sakura…_

_Sakura…_

_I will always love you…_ Sasori's voice was so beautiful voice rang in her ears.

"No… You're not real…" she whispered, feeling a familiar sting in her eyes.

_Sakura…_

_Saaaakuuuuraaaa…_

"Inner… Stop…" she whispered.

'_**For the fucking last time IT'S NOT ME!' Inner cried, near hysterics.**_

'Wha-What?' Sakura thought in alarm. 'What do you mean it's not you? Who else is inside my head?'

'_**If I knew I'd be kicking ass right now!' Inner sighed. 'At least you finally realized it wasn't me creating Sasori's voice…'**_

At the thought of Sasori her mind went blank.

'If it's not you, Inner…' Sakura thought, worriedly glancing around the dark hospital room.

_I will never leave you, my Sakura._ Sasori's melodious voice rang through her head and she thought she could feel his arms wrapping around her body.

Sakura screamed.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Tsunade sighed as she walked down the hall towards Sakura's room, as she had done every morning, noon, and night. Since Sakura had gotten back, Tsunade had put extra effort into her paperwork in order to get as much done so her schedule would allow her as many visits to Sakura as possible. The dim lighting of the night shift and the lack of sound made the empty hall strangely eerie that night. Normally, Tsunade would have never noticed.

And then the sound of Sakura screaming split the air.

"Sakura!" Tsunade gasped, running the last few feet toward the room and slamming open the door.

Sakura was shaking and clutching her head, curled up on the hospital bed. Immediately at her apprentice's side, Tsunade wrapped her arms around Sakura and began rocking her. Instinctively, Sakura turned into Tsunade's embrace.

"No…No…" Sakura moaned softly. "Can't be… Not real…"

Tsunade's brows furrowed. What was bothering Sakura?

"Is everything okay?" an ANBU guard asked from the doorway, one of the agents assigned to watch over Sakura.

Tsunade nodded. "I have it under control."

The ANBU nodded his head and disappeared to watch from afar.

She turned back to Sakura. "Sakura, what's wrong?"

But the girl kept shaking her head and trembled.

"Sakura-"

"GO AWAY!" Sakura suddenly screamed, but clutched Tsunade closer to her. "Get out! Get out! You aren't real…" she sobbed the last sentence.

Tsunade shook her head. "Of course I'm real. Sakura? Sakura?"

Sakura, still clutching her head, began to tear at her hair. "No, no, no, no…" she moaned. "Get out get out get out get out!"

_Sakura…_

_Sakura… _

_I will never leave you, Sakura._

**So… watchya think?**

**I'm starting to regret killing Sasori… I just love him so much… And the Sakura in this story is getting so sad that I wanna cry… So I'm starting to wonder if I should change my mind.**

**Do you guys want Sasori back? Or should I keep this going in the SasuSaku direction? (In which case Sasori's voice inside Sakura's head will just be her mental instability)**

**Waaaah such potential either waaaay! XO**

**~ReViEw!~**


	15. Chapter 15

**Yes I'm re-posting this chapter. Why? Because the very last part of the stupid chapter deleted itself! Grrrr...**

**So I've decided that I'm going to go ahead and procede with my original plan for this story. Stop throwing things at me SasoSaku fans! I promise it gets better!**

**Anyways, here's the chapter!~**

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO**

* * *

><p><em><span>Chapter Fifteen: No Rest for the Wicked<span>_

"SAKURA!" Tsunade grabbed her hands and pulled them away from her. Suddenly Sakura went quiet, her body stilled, and she began to stare at the sheets covering her body. "Get a grip! What's wrong with you?"

Sakura didn't answer. She had withdrawn again. Tsunade didn't know whether to glower and smack the girl in the head, or to be concerned and rub her back in a way reminiscent of Sakura's mother.

And so all Tsunade could do was hug the girl tighter.

"Hokage-sama." A deep baritone voice sounded from the doorway.

Sakura didn't react. Tsunade reluctantly looked up at the ANBU agent standing in the doorway, his silhouette dark against the light from the outside hallway. Sakura's room had no lights on. The girl didn't want them on, content to waste away in the shadows.

"Yes?" Tsunade replied tersely.

"You are needed, Hokage-sama." The ANBU informed her.

Tsunade nodded, dismissing the man, who disappeared in a puff of smoke. The Hokage glanced back at Sakura. She didn't want to leave her apprentice alone in the dark. The wanted to keep the girl in her arms; protect Sakura from the demons plaguing her mind.

But duty called.

"Sakura." Tsunade called softly, sweetly, coaxing the girl into a state of awareness. Sakura blinked and looked into Tsunade's eyes.

"Yes?" Sakura asked. It was the first time since her return to Konoha that Sakura had even bothered to acknowledge anyone, let alone answer to her name.

"Listen very carefully." Tsunade's voice contained a stern edge to its gentle tone.

"You will _live_. You _will not_ give up on life. No matter what may have happened to you, you are a kunoichi of Konoha. More than that- you are _my apprentice_." Tsunade gripped Sakura's hands in her own. "_Do not_ disgrace me by wallowing in you grief and self-pity. You are stronger than this. I _know_ you are. And I am _right here._ I am here for you."

Sakura stared forlornly at Tsunade for a moment. But Tsunade didn't miss the small, teensy spark of inner strength that kindled for a brief moment. And then Tsunade knew that Sakura would be back.

"I need to leave now." Tsunade stood. As she approached the door, she turned to look at Sakura; the only thing visible of the girl in the dark room was the parts of her pale skin that shone from the glow of the machines she was hooked up to.

"Goodnight." Tsunade whispered, and then shut the door behind her.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"Good morning Haruno-san!" the abnormally cheery nurse practically skipped into the room with a tray of food.

Sakura resisted the urge to throw her only pillow into the woman's face. Honestly, what patient wanted to wake up to an overly cheerful morning person? Because if one is stuck in the hospital, it is pretty much a given that one would be grumpy in the first place. Happy-go-lucky nurses made life harder. And Sakura- Sakura was in a _foul_ mood.

"Is there anything else I can get for you?" The woman beamed. The rays of light shining from her smile blinded Sakura for a moment.

_**Who is this woman? Lee's mom?**_

Sakura couldn't help but glare at the woman.

"Er… Press the call button if you need anything…?" The nurse back out of the room and seemed to skip down the hallway.

_**Trip. Trip. Trip.**_

Sakura's thoughts chanted watching the woman disappear. Sadly Sakura didn't hear the sound of flesh smacking the floor. It seemed her prayers were left unanswered.

Sighing, Sakura turned to the tray of hospital food. She began to eat, not really tasting anything, although she knew from experience that it should be tasting slightly of cardboard.

The fork clattered loudly on the tray and the hospital bed was suddenly bereft of its patient.

"Haruno-san, I back to take your tray…" The nurse's voice trailed off as she stared at the empty bed.

"Alert the Hokage!"

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"_You will __**live**__."_

Sweat poured off her back, her arms, her legs… everywhere. Her muscles screamed in protest, but she reveled in the feeling of strength that coursed through her. There was pain. But it was good.

"_You __**will not**__ give up on life."_

No. She wouldn't. How disgusted would Sasori have been with her if he had seen her being so pathetic? But she had been pathetic. Wallowing in a hospital bed, crying her heart out. Kami, she _hated_ crying! It was weakness!

"_-you are a kunoichi of Konoha. More than that- you are __**my apprentice**__."_

Since when does an apprentice of Tsunade show weakness? Since when do they cry? They don't! And Sakura was damned if she disgraced Tsunade or herself like that ever again.

"_I am here for you."_

Granted, one could hardly lose their soulmate and not cry. Because Sasori had been just that. Her _soulmate_. In this twisted, messed up world that she lived in, even when duty dictated that they should hate each other, that they should kill each other, they had found love.

_**It wasn't perfect. **_Sakura thought as she jumped into the air with a spinning kick and slammed her heel into the ground in a hammer kick as she landed. The ground split.

_**It wasn't supposed to be perfect.**_ Chakra gathered at her fingertips and she concentrated until they were thin, controlled, and very sharp.

_**It wasn't right. **_Chakra scalpels in hand, she began to perfect her speed, her arms blurring as she practiced a form of medical offense she had been working on for a while.

_**But it was beautiful.**_ The trees looked as if they had been through a shredder that hadn't quite cut all the way through. Lacerations covered the trunks. If it had been human bodies, pressure points, arteries, tendons, and blood loss would have been the immediate result. Sakura smiled grimly at her work.

_**It was bliss.**_ She back flipped several times, changing directions, forcing her body to remember how to balance itself. She was out of practice from being prisoner. It was the one thing she had truly yearned for during her 'imprisonment'.

_**A fleeting moment of happiness. **_Sakura felt as if she were a bird flying for the first time in years. The feeling of freedom accompanied the pull and push of muscles, the slight sting of exertion a familiar companion. Sakura twisted and flipped, pretending to dodge imaginary enemies, playing a game to keep herself from touching the ground as much as possible. Indeed, she felt as if she were flying.

_**Eternally engraved on my heart.**_ Sakura ignored the wet tracks on her cheeks, pretending that they were not there. She landed in a handstand and slowly bent her body backwards, the muscles of her back screaming in protest. Then she clenched her abdomen and pulled her body back into a vertical handstand in an immense feat of strength.

_**This is for you, Sasori.**_ She thought as she finally reached that point where her body was convinced it was capable of anything; that point between exhaustion and perfection. She focused the chakra to her fingertips again, pushing outwards in a steady stream. The chakra string whipped out of her fingers and Sakura snapped her arms to send ripples down the string, watching the beauty of the wave traveling through the blue strand. She focused closer and sharpened the string. Then Sakura flicked her wrist hard.

_**I loved you.**_ The chakra string lashed out and grazed the leaves on a tree, continuing into the trunk of another tree. The leaves were shredded into pieces, and the chakra string sliced right through the trunk of the other tree. Sakura grinned. A weapon of her own invention.

_**Thank you Sasori.**_

Sakura paused and allowed the chakra stings to fizzle into nonexistence. Her body shuddered and she collapsed onto the ground in a pathetic heap. Shoulders convulsing, Sakura opened her mouth in a silent scream of agony as the pain of her heart shot through her chest.

"Sasori…" she pleaded.

After five minutes of completely crying her heart out (again) and two more minutes of berating herself of such weak behavior, Sakura stood and disappeared in a whirlwind of cherry blossoms.

Reappearing at the front door of her apartment, Sakura dispelled the protective jutsus around it before simply breaking the lock and entering.

Dust was everywhere. It wasn't thick, a small miracle itself, but it covered every surface she could see. Sakura took a slow step forward. Then another. And shut the door behind her.

Her fingers trailed lightly over the top of the couch.

_Sasori and Sakura sat on the couch, her nestled in his arms, leaning her head on his chest._

Sakura abruptly snatched her hand away from the couch. A grim line appeared on her lips as she pushed on into her apartment. Passing through the hall, Sakura glanced at the few pictures she had hanging. One of her parents. One of her and Naruto. One of her, Ino, and Hinata.

A sudden fear gripped Sakura.

She didn't even have a picture of Sasori.

Of course her thoughts flashed to maybe stealing one from an old bingo book from Suna (or she could have called in a favor from Gaara) but she knew it would not do Sasori justice. A memory of Sasori smiling at her appeared in her head, though she couldn't remember what he had been smiling for. Sometimes she had caught him smiling at her for no apparent reason at all. Sakura had to force down the memory at her throat seemed to close up.

_Must be the dust. It has to be..._

She walked into the bedroom. When was the last time she had slept in this bed? Six months? Seven? It seemed like an eternity.

Sakura plopped herself down on the bed, disturbing the fine layer of dust, and stared out the window. The sun was high in the sky with fluffy clouds all around. How pretty. Sakura leaned her elbows on her knees and stared at the scene.

"_Hidan…" Sakura said a little too sweetly._

_He gulped._

_Her hand shot out and grabbed his ear, and she hulled him into the kitchen._

"_What do you think you're doing? Crazy woman- How are you even strong enough to pull me like that? Wait- is that a spoon? What are you- hey! - Ow! Hey! My ear could come off you know! Ow!- What- ow!"_

"_Baka…" Kakuzu muttered, setting his book down and smirking as he watched the show._

Sakura chuckled at the memory. She didn't know why the memory came to her, it just did.

'_Ah… Good times.' Inner Sakura sighed._

'I see you managed to isolate yourself from the rest of my thoughts once more.' Sakura noted.

'_I wonder what they are up to now…' Inner Sakura rambled on._

Abruptly standing up, Sakura shoved Inner Sakura into the back of her head and forced away the memories she had with those bumbling fools who were the feared Akatsuki.

'I need to do some cleaning…' Sakura thought.

She spent the rest of the day cleaning, focusing of eliminating every particle of dust, washing every piece of fabric, disinfecting every hard surface, and throwing away every piece of food that had been left to fester in her fridge (there was something orange and furry that Sakura didn't even want to _think_ about what it had been before).

The day just got better and better as Sakura found out she had a family of mice in the pantry (whom she promptly evicted and then proceeded to throw away everything in the pantry as well, followed by a thorough disinfecting of the entire pantry) and an infestation of cockroaches in the living room (after screaming like a banshee for ten whole minutes and restraining herself from just sending a fireball at the wall). Sakura did not even want to imagine how much of the apartment those evil abominations, the enemy of all women, those _cockroaches_ had infested.

Desperate times call for… Shino.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"I see you're back. Welcome home." Shino said as Sakura let him into the apartment.

Shino glanced at the sheer amount of cleaning supplies and plastic bags full of dirty paper towels and winced. The fumes and chemicals must be agitating his bugs. Sakura managed a small, polite smile.

"Thank you." She said.

"We were very worried about you." Shino continued, shocking Sakura that he was willingly having a conversation with her. "I hope nothing too traumatizing occurred. But if you need anything, I'm here."

Sakura was touched. She really was. Never in a million years did she ever imagine she and Shino would be having such a friendly conversation. After all, the most she had ever said to him before now was a polite hello; unless it related to shinobi work, (she was Tsunade's apprentice/messenger/drinking buddy/ slave after all).

"Thanks Shino." Sakura said, her small smile growing by a fraction. It was still hard to put effort into smiling, or even feeling happiness. But Shino needed to know how much this meant to her.

"Actually, I called you over hear for a favor…" Sakura laughed nervously.

Shino bowed his head slightly, asking her to continue.

"Well, it seems some creatures have decided to move in while I was… away." Sakura began, glancing at the dreaded corner of her living room that she dared not get within ten feet. "Cockroaches."

She shuddered.

Shino stood silent.

"Anyway, I was wondering… with you being a bug expert and all… If you could help me with that little problem." '_Little_' being an understatement. If Sakura's apartment couldn't be completely cockroach-free by that night, Sakura was cutting her losses and buying an entirely new apartment.

If Sakura could see Shino's mouth underneath that large jacket, she would have seen the curl of his lips. As it was, a condescending aura enveloped the bug-user and Sakura swore she felt the sneer on his face.

"Cockroaches." Shino huffed. "They are the scum of all bugs."

Not knowing what Shino was trying to say, Sakura only nodded absently.

"Don't worry Sakura. My bugs will have them out in no time." Shino assured her.

"Could your bugs also check for any other bug infestations and the extent of any damage they may have done?" Sakura asked him.

Shino nodded. "Of course."

One look at the bugs emerging from under Shino's jackets and Sakura felt her stomach protest.

"I'll, uh, wait outside." She mumbled quickly and ran out the door. In a matter of seconds she could hear the buzz of Shino's swarm doing their work in her apartment.

'Dammit I just cleaned everything and now there are a gazillion bugs in my apartment checking every nook and cranny for other bugs. Just great.' Sakura thought. As a kunoichi, Sakura had been through some less than favorable situations. She could endure many sickening and nauseating environments. But as a doctor, she also was a slight germophobe. More specifically, she was a germophobe when it came to living environments such as hospitals and homes. And there was a swarm of bugs in her house. Never mind she had practically invited them in (through Shino, technically). There was a large amount of _bugs_ sifting through her _house_.

Suddenly Sakura felt sick again.

"I'm done." Shino said, his voice sounding more smug than usual.

Sakura grimaced at him as she was attempting to smile.

"Is something the matter?" Shino asked her worriedly, probably thinking she was still sick and having a relapse or something.

"You bugs…" she began. "They are… more or less clean… right?"

Shino raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean exactly?"

Sakura could see she was going to have to explain this to Shino. It was easy for those of the Aburame Clan (or any bug user) to forget that most people do not particularly enjoy a vast amount of bugs in their living space.

"I am a doctor."

"I know."

"You just released your bugs in my house."

"You gave me permission, or at least I assumed that's what you meant."

"I did."

"… Is there a problem then?"

"I am a doctor."

"We have already stated this fact."

"As a doctor, I can also be quite germophobic."

"I can understand."

"…Swarm of bugs, Shino."

"Yes."

"All over my house. My _living room_."

"Ah. I see."

"Ah. You see. That's good."

Shino seemed to smirk behind his jacket. "My bugs seem to be offended you would think of them in such a way."

Sakura gave him a level stare.

He shrugged. "I assure you my bugs are quite clean. They feed off chakra, remember? They hardly ever find themselves in… dirty situations. In fact, they are quite useful in cleaning the house."

Sakura gave him a skeptical look.

"By producing a small field of chakra around them, they stave off bacteria and with the microscopic vibrations of the chakra, they clean dirt and bacteria off hard surfaces." Shino explained.

Sakura blinked. "That's… actually a brilliant idea. Very useful."

If Sakura knew Shino better, she would have realized that such words made the bug user preen happily.

"So what of the cockroaches?" she asked the dreaded question.

"They are gone, and so are a couple small termite infestations." Shino said.

Sakura visibly winced. Bugs were so not her forte. Just about the only bugs she could stand were butterflies, moths, ladybugs, and the Aburame clan's bugs.

"There is no major damage to the build of the apartment, though." Shino assured her. "You should be fine."

"What happened to the cockroaches and termites?" Sakura was almost afraid to ask.

Shino paused. "…My bugs took care of them."

Sakura glanced at her door and back at Shino. "Do I want to know?"

Shino chuckled. "Nope."

"As long as I don't walk in there to find dead insects littering my floor or a dead cockroach falling on my head, I'll be okay." Sakura nodded.

"I can promise you that there will be no dead bug bodies to worry about." Shino told her.

Sakura glanced at her apartment. "I… really don't want to know."

Shino now laughed and walked away with only a muffled 'goodbye'. Sakura gave a halfhearted wave and entered her apartment. The air seemed much cleaner than when she had first entered, but she still felt goosebumps thinking of the bugs all over. So Sakura put a mask on and began spraying disinfectant on every inch of her apartment like a mad woman.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

The night was terrible.

Sakura shivered and curled even tighter. But nothing could shake that horrid feeling. It wasn't cold tonight. Yet she couldn't stop herself from shaking.

With a growl of frustration Sakura leaped out of her bed tearing at the sheets desperately. She stared angrily at the empty bed.

_It's missing a certain redhead..._

Sakura shut down her thoughts and hurriedly wiped her eyes. She didn't like sleeping alone. It only reminded her of what she had lost. The lonely ache in her chest was getting more unbearable with each minute of solitude.

Sakura pulled on some baggy pants and a shirt and went outside.

The view from atop the Hokage Mountain had always been her mental picture of home. As Sakura set on the ledge, overlooking the lights, she sighed. And sighed again. Then the tears broke out.

Pulling her knees to her chest, she rested her chin on her knees.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"Those Konoha bastards."

Deidara wasn't sure which Akatsuki member had said it first, but suddenly they were all saying the same thing.

"Don't those fuckers realize she ain't their bitch no more?" A certain Jashinist growled. "I say we go fuck up their faces and hand their asses to them!"

"That would be most unwise."

"Shut the fuck up pink eye."

Deidara smothered a laugh as Itachi wilted, just barely.

"I miss the little hellcat." Kisame sighed.

Pein smacked his hand to his forehead. "And I suppose that if I do not agree to this you all will mutiny?"

The answer was obvious.

Pein glared at them all. "Ah fuck it all." He muttered in defeat.

* * *

><p><strong>In many ways I feel sorry for Pein. I mean, imagine the stress he goes through because he's the poor soul in charge of so many demented morons!<strong>

**Review!**


	16. Chapter 16

**I'M ALIVE PEOPLE! :D**

**Sakura: psh, about time.**

**Me: … but… *sniffle* Didn't you miss me?**

**Sakura: … Do you want the truth?**

**Me: *sob* Nobody loves me!**

**Okay, so I know it's been months since I updated this story, but school is a bitch! Seriously! Plus I had writers block, and other stuff… Okay, so now that I'm done with excuses, I'll get to the point.**

****Spoilers** So the only reason I'm doing this (other than I love messing with my readers' heads Muwahaha) is that I was looking for some awesome/beautiful/epic SasoSaku stories AND I COULDN'T FIND ANY! NADA! I'd already read all the good ones \(TT_TT)/ Isn't that _sad?_**

***drum roll please* And so I've decided to ultimately end this as SasoSaku. *_Ta da!*_ Because I love saving endangered species, I am adding to the SasoSaku population. ^^ and maybe you guys should also. That's right people, I stalk you all and read your wonderful stories (let's face it, it's better than the crap you usually find with the FF searches).**

**Oh, and Sasuke, if your reading this… YOU ARE A COMPLETE BRAT IN THE ANIME. So STFU. (If you couldn't tell… I'm pissed at Sasuke. So he will no longer be a love interest for out dear Sakura.) SHANNARO!**

**Standard disclaimer applies and all that crap.**

* * *

><p><em><span>Chapter 16: The Road<span>_

_Three months later…_

…

"Sakura, answer me." Tsunade ordered.

The girl in question turned away from the window with a raised eyebrow. "Why are you questioning me as if I were still in therapy?"

Tsunade growled. "Because you should still be in therapy, but seeing as you have emotionally scarred all of our therapists, you're stuck with me. Congratulations, by the way. Not even our most hard-core ANBU operatives have been able to scare the shit out of those therapists the way you have. With the exception of Ibiki, of course."

Sakura's aura darkened. "I told them I didn't want to talk about it."

"That's the point of therapy Sakura! We just want to help you!" Tsunade slammed her hand on the desk (gently, in her opinion, since the wood didn't crack).

"I have already made peace with my past."

"Not with the way I see you gazing out those windows." Her shisou countered. "You think I don't recognize that look, Sakura? Bullshit! I've worn that look for the past decade, even longer, in fact!"

The pinkette stiffened, knowing full well Tsunade was the only one who could see right through her.

Tsunade sighed and murmured a couple words, making hand seals to activate the wards around the room to keep their conversation private. When she was done, her wizened gaze fell on her apprentice. They were becoming too much alike, in Tsunade opinion. She had hoped to never watch another woman go through what she herself had experienced with Dan. And yet, Fate seemed intent on turning Sakura in her mirror image, which was more of a curse than a blessing in Tsunade's opinion. The older woman's heart wept for her surrogate daughter. There was only so much she could protect Sakura from, but the girl's heart was not one of them.

_I had hoped you would never feel my pain, Sakura. If it was any other woman, with the exception of Shizune, it wouldn't hurt nearly so much. But now… Now I know how I must have looked to the rest of the world…_

Indeed, Sakura hadn't been able to cut her hair during her capture, and didn't bother to cut it since she returned. Her hair was almost as long as Tsunade's, reaching an inch or so past her shoulders. Her green eyes were darker, not sparkling like the naïve girl she had once been. Yet her jaw was set with grim determination and her eyes shone with a sheer will to live. Sakura's body was in that relaxed-yet-tense state that only jounin and ANBU seemed to accomplish and her body had lost all traces of baby-fat that she had still carried before her capture.

It seemed her body never recovered from the malnourished state she had been in when she had been brought to Konoha (Tsunade remembered the team telling her that Sakura had not eaten at all on their journey back). Now the young woman's curves were not as supple or soft as they should have been, but almost sharp and angular.

Sakura's wardrobe had changed too. After a month of being off the active ninja roster, Sakura had demanded her shisou to send her on a mission to Suna, complaining that she needed to get out and brush off her skills. Although the Godaime had been reluctant to do so, she sent Sakura on a C-rank mission to guard a caravan on its way to Suna. The mission had gone without a hitch, yet for some reason, Sakura returned clothes in Suna garb. Now Tsunade's apprentice wore black slacks and a long sleeved shirt, made of light yet durable fabric that was distinct to Suna. Over the shirt was her old Haruno vest, but the vest, and the shirt underneath, had been hemmed to show off her abdomen, baring her flat stomach to the world. With that she wore a cream colored Suna scarf and her old nin boots.

Something had changed this woman, Tsunade knew. The old medic recognized the trauma of losing a loved one. Sakura had dealt with it by toughening up her exterior and shutting away her fragile heart. Hadn't Tsunade done the same?

"Who was he?" Tsunade asked her gently after a long time of tense silence.

Sakura turned her back to the Godaime and continued to stare out the window overlooking Konoha. The minutes stretched by, but Tsunade, unlike amateur therapists (or knuckle-headed ninja), knew the value of patience when dealing with such situations. Eventually Sakura would realize she wasn't leaving without an answer, and the girl would confide in her mother-figure.

Said pinkette sighed.

_Bingo._

"If you hadn't already guessed, it was an Akatsuki member."

Her voice was so quiet that at first Tsunade might have imagined it. When the truth of her words settled in, Tsunade thanks Kami that she had activated the wards. Heaven forbid if the Council was to find out and use this against her! They would force Tsunade to arrest her beloved apprentice.

"Kami…" Tsunade breathed, feeling the wind knocked out of her. Sakura… and an Akatsuki? Surely the apocalypse had arrived!

"Oh Kami… Sakura… Kuso…" Tsunade swore softly, pulling out not one, but two bottles of sake. Not even bothering to pull out any cups, the Hokage opened both bottles and left one for Sakura in front of the chair. "Sit, musume… Tell me everything. I won't record any of it." She promised.

Sakura nodded, trusting her shisou. The pinkette took a seat across from the Hokage and took a long sip of the sake. "That's good stuff." She sighed, wiping her lips.

Tsunade 'Mm-hm'-ed and took her own gulp of the liquid fire.

"Okay…" Tsunade sighed, putting the bottle down but not letting go. "Tell me. Everything."

Sakura cupped her cheek with her hand and leaned on the Hokage's desk, staring forlornly at her sake bottle as she swirled the contents.

…

…

…

"Akasuna-no-Sasori."

_Cough cough! Hack hack! *choke* Cough cough! *Gasp!*_

…

…

…

Tsunade cleared her throat and cautiously took another sip of alcohol, careful not to choke again. Then she glared at her pink-haired apprentice, who was looking at her shisou with a blank face. But the amusement in Sakura's eyes shone clearly through the façade.

"Just gonna let me choke huh?" Tsunade growled and proceeded to down more of the sake.

Sakura laughed softly and took another sip. "It was pretty funny, actually."

There was another long pause.

…

"Tell me you're fucking with me."

"Language, Tsunade."

"Fuck language." Tsunade burst out. "You are telling me you fell for the man who killed Elder Chiyo of Suna, his _own grandmother_; a man who should have died years ago, and the greatest puppeteer known to man, _an Akatsuki member_? Kami, from what I remember of the 'puppets' mentioned in his file, Sasori wasn't that far form Orochimaru with his experiments on the human body. _Human puppets_, Sakura."

Sakura nodded, her eyes not leaving the swirling sake in her bottle. But at the facts her shisou had stated, the young woman's hand that had been supporting her head clenched her pink locks. "You think I meant to?" she asked quietly.

Tsunade growled and cursed under her breath. Then she took a particularly large swig of sake. "Fucking motherfucker."

Sakura chuckled dryly. "And people wonder where I get my potty mouth from."

"Did you tell him anything?" Tsunade asked, assuming the man had seduced her apprentice. The man was so lucky his ass was already chidori-ed and rasengan-ed. Other wise his ass would be Tsunade-ed.

"Of course not." Sakura scoffed. "I told him I would never betray my village, and so we never talked about our two factions."

Tsunade raised her eyebrows. "Really?"

"Well sure." Sakura shrugged. "He knew a lot about the human body, for a person who's not a medic. We often argued over jutsus, strategies, discussed medical theories, other medical hoo-ha, what have you. Sometimes Itachi would joined us."

Tsunade managed to stop herself from choking again. "Itachi?"

Her apprentice grinned. "Yep. He's actually not such a bad person." Then she muttered under her breath, "I much prefer him to his brother…"

The Hokage shook her head. "Okay, the suspense is killing me. Tell me everything from beginning to end. Now."

And as Sakura began telling her tale, Tsunade brought out two more bottles of sake. It was going to be a long day.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"_Holy. Shit."_

"Language, Shisou."

"_Holy mother of Kami."_

"That isn't much better than 'holy shit'."

"_Jesus. Holy… crap."_

"We don't believe in Jesus. In fact, I'm pretty sure Christianity doesn't exist in our world." The younger woman pointed our dryly.

"_Mother. Fucker."_

"Now that's just vulgar."

Tsunade stared at Sakura with eyes that seemed to pop out of her head. Said woman took a long drink of her beverage. Sakura counted to forty-two before the bottle left her shisou's lips.

"This situation is utterly ridiculous. _Daaaamn_, Sakura!"

"Now you sound like Hidan."

The Hokage shook her head at Sakura. "You befriended almost the entire Akatsuki! You infiltrated one of their bases! You seduced one of their members!"

_Bam!_

Sakura's body quivered in anger as she was suddenly standing up with her hand flat on the wood of the desk.

"I did _not _seduce him." She hissed. "What we felt was real, whether you believe it or not."

"He tortured you." Tsunade stated, confused.

Sakura sat back down slowly and nodded. "He did. But when he realized he wouldn't tell him how I had changed him, he decided to let me out."

"But-"

Sakura held up her hand to stop Tsunade. "People change, Hokage-sama. I watched him change with my own eyes." The pinkette gave a dry laugh. "I don't know how I did it, but I changed them all."

"So… What Itachi told you about the night of the massacre…" Tsunade whispered.

Sakura took a long drink from her bottle. "Yeah… Look, I know it's hard to believe. But if you saw the Itachi I knew… He's so much different than we imagined. He's a gentle man, really, but blinded, no pun intended, by his ideals. It's the same with most of them. But I could easily see why Itachi would be brainwashed."

Sakura paused to wet her throat.

"He despised his clan. Itachi never wanted power, he looked down upon his power-hungry family. And his loyalty to the village overrode his reluctance to… kill his family."

The Hokage stared sadly at Sakura. "I'll look into this."

Sakura nodded. "Don't tell Sasuke just yet. His world has been shattered too many times. We shouldn't tell him until we have concrete evidence."

The Godaime looked curiously at Sakura. "Are you sure?"

"But we should try to keep Sasuke from confronting her brother. I don't want the brothers to destroy themselves before the truth is found." Sakura finished her second sake bottle and set it down on the desk.

Tsunade downed the last of her alcohol and stood with Sakura, walking around the desk to pull her apprentice into her embrace.

With a soft smile, Sakura relaxed and returned Tsunade's hug. For the first time in months, Sakura was at peace.

"My dear girl." Tsunade sighed. "You have truly grown into an outstanding kunoichi. I just wish you didn't have to suffer so much to find your strength."

Sakura blinked rapidly, fighting the moisture in her eyes and leaned against her teacher. "Thank you." She whispered.

They broke apart and gave each other sad smiles. Smiles that were exactly the same, two women who had lost a part of their souls.

"I knew it was the right decision to choose you." Tsunade grinned.

Sakura laughed. "Yeah, yeah. You didn't choose me, I annoyed you until you said yes just to shut me up."

Tsunade chuckled. "That too."

Walking back to her chair, the Hokage ruffled through a pile of papers until she found the file she was looking for.

"Now then," she began. "Back to the business you actually came here for, before our therapy session."

Sakura sat back down and leaned back in the chair, crossing her legs and letting her fingers tap on the arm rests. "So you didn't just summon me here for a therapy-slash-bonding session?"

"Cheeky brat." Tsunade chuckled. "No, I didn't."

"Shouldn't you release the wards before the Council gets suspicious?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

Tsunade guffawed. "Y'know I get tired of those senile fools listening in all the time. I deserve a break, ne?"

Sakura shrugged. "Sure."

The Hokage handed the file to Sakura before the blonde woman stood and headed to her office door. She had to open the door to call Shizune, since no one outside the office would here them with the wards activated. After sending her first apprentice off to find the two kunoichi on Sakura's ANBU team, the master and apprentice discussed the mission.

"So, ready to go back to the dirty work?"

"No rest for the wicked?" Sakura quipped.

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "I figure you've had enough time to recover. No more slacking off!"

Sakura sighed. "And people think you go easy on me." She muttered.

There was a knock on the door, and with the wards activated, Tsunade had to physically open the door to allow two kunoichi in.

Sakura stood and grinned at her team.

"Well look who's back to her old self!" Ino tackled her best friend.

"Real mature, Ino." Sakura muttered from the floor.

Ino sat on top of her and smirked, giving the pinkette a thumbs up. "You bet!"

Hinata sighed and shook her head. "G-Guys… Can't we try to act as if we are feared ANBU operatives instead of teenage girls?"

Ino squealed and jumped off of Sakura and latched onto the Hyuuga girl. "You said a whole question without stuttering!"

"We are doomed." Tsunade sighed and, after walking back to her desk, tossed the file to Sakura. "Get to work girls."

Sakura snatched the file from the air and flipped it open, her partners looking over each shoulder to read the mission overview.

"How… Interesting." Sakura raised her gaze to her shisou. "An assassination? Can't you just send a jounin or chunin team?"

"Yeah… N-No offense, Hokage-sama, b-but this seems a little too easy." Hinata's soft voice sounded from over Sakura's left shoulder.

"Plus the fact that our team has a specific reason to its formation." Ino said, going serious and crossing her arms on Sakura's right side.

The Hokage nodded. "You wanted to protect your boys."

The kunoichi nodded.

"Well, let's just say I have a hunch about this guy, but I wouldn't dare send any of the guys."

"Eh?" all three women asked in unison.

"You'll see." Tsunade responded grimly.

"Well, we can't exactly refuse anyway…" Sakura muttered. "There's a reason our team does the dirty work."

Looking up form reading the contents of the file again, Ino nodded. "Okay then. I'd say this one will take… maybe a month?"

Hinata and Sakura agreed.

"Okay team." Sakura snapped the file closed and tossed it gently into the air, the papers igniting and burning to a crisp before it even landed on the floor, leaving nothing but dust.

"Go pack. Meet at the gates tonight at midnight, and make sure you aren't followed or spotted." Sakura ordered. "Wear you masks when traveling through the village. Don't be recognized."

"Hai!"

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"Come on, Teme!" Naruto pouted.

Once again the Uchiha brat- whoops, I mean, Uchiha, uh, child, er, man- sighed and wondered why he didn't just leave in the first place.

Other than the fact that he was in a cell, chained with chakra suppressors, and had personally been interrogated by Ibiki, he was getting annoyed. By a certain blonde idiot.

"Naruto. Shut. Up."

Naruto growled and pounded on the bars that separated them. "Just admit it!"

"I have nothing to admit."

"I'm not as dumb as you think I am."

"Yes, you are. Dobe."

Naruto pinned his best friend with a glare. "I saw the way you watched her, baka. I'm not blind. Hell, even Ino and Hinata wouldn't let you near her!"

Sasuke blinked in surprise. Well, it seemed the idiot had grown a couple brain cells while he was away. Unfortunately, they were not being put to good use. Life was cruel.

"You are an idiot." He responded after a pause.

"Ha! So you admit I am right!" Naruto pointed an obnoxious finger at Sasuke. The Uchiha growled.

"Get that finger out of my face."

"It's not even in your face, red eyes!" Naruto huffed. "There's a cell door separating us."

Sasuke was sure Ibiki and the other interrogators had let Naruto in as a form of torture. They were probably watching the security tapes and laughing their asses off at that very moment. The raven-haired man scowled in the general direction of the door, hoping the cameras caught his frustration.

"I never said you were right." Sasuke huffed.

"You didn't have to; I speak Uchiha." Naruto gave him a thumbs up.

Sasuke stared at Naruto, waiting for his brain cells to come running out of his ears and crying that they gave up. "There is no such thing."

"Of course there is!"

"Hn."

"You see? That one means 'You are an idiot, but I don't want to admit that you might have a point there'." Naruto grinned proudly, crossing his arms and nodding his head matter-of-factly.

Wow, maybe the dobe was onto something.

Not that Sasuke would admit it.

"Dobe."

"Interpretation: 'Wow, maybe the done was onto something'." Naruto smiled.

Sasuke resisted the urge to slam his head on the wall behind him. Sweet merciful Kami, just shut up Naruto!

"Soooo…" Naruto crossed his arms behind his head. "You like Sakura huh? She's got a pretty amazing body, right? Those breasts…"

"Naruto." Sasuke interrupted. "Shut it."

"Sure, they aren't as large as Baa-chan's or- or even Hinata's! Man I never realized Hinata's had gotten so big…"

Now Sasuke actually slammed the back of his head on the wall.

"Hey Teme! What didya do that for?" Naruto gaped.

Sasuke glared. "I was trying to knock myself out so I didn't have to listen to your vulgar perverseness."

The blonde pouted.

…

…

…

…

Five minutes of blessed silence passed.

Then, Naruto spoke up in a quiet and serious voice that didn't fit him. "Teme…" he cleared his throat. "She hasn't gotten better."

Sasuke, who had been gazing at the ceiling, slid his eyes to look at his old teammate.

"She doesn't talk to me… Only Ino or Hinata… Sometimes I've seen her playing shogi with Shikamaru, but they don't really talk…" Naruto resisted the urge to sniffle. "And for some odd reason, even Shino! But… She doesn't talk to me… And if someone mentions you…" Naruto trailed off.

Sasuke's eyes focused on Naruto, telling the blonde to continue.

Naruto nodded. "She leaves. She can't stand to hear your name. She gets all tense and then disappears. Her eyes… they get angry if you are mentioned."

The young man shook his head, lonely tears running down his cheeks silently. "I don't know what I did! I've gone to her house! She's never there when I come, I know because I've broken in a couple times to try and corner her… They way she looks at me breaks my heart because her gaze is just… It's so sad and it's like it hurts her to look at me…"

Naruto put his head in his hands. "I've hurt her somehow, and I don't know how to fix it! Not Ino, Hinata, or Shino know what's wrong with her! And Shikamaru doesn't talk to her; they just 'have therapeutic shogi games' as the lazy genius said."

Both men were silent. No one had answers.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"This is very unwise."

"Shut the fuck up Pink Eye. No one likes you."

"It's obviously Red Eye."

"…That just sucked Fish Face."

"…Shut up Janken."

"BLASPHEMY! C'mere and let me fillet your shark ass!"

"Hey! Watch where you swing those things, un! You almost hit my C4, yeah!"

"No one cares, transvestite!"

"Oh now you done it, yeah! Let's see if you can put yourself back together after you're turned to ash, un!"

"Don't waste your C4, I paid good money for that."

"See? I fuckin' knew you secretly cared for me!"

"… Blow him up."

"Wait- what? Fuck!"

"Hahaha yes! Who's the one getting filleted now, _Janken-sama_?"

"Stop insulting my religion you fucking heathens!"

_BOOM!_

"Gahaha! Take that zombie-boy, yeah! I'll blow your family jewels off too!"

Itachi put his hand to his temple and eased some chakra into his head to ease the growing migraine and glared at Kakuzu, silently ordering him to stop the fools from killing each other.

"I'm not stopping them." Kakuzu deadpanned. "Let them kill each other. I'll save money on not spending it on food and C4."

Itachi sighed and turned to the only other sane person that wasn't currently waving a giant sword/scythe/tongues-chewing-explosives in the air.

"Sakura would be most unpleased at such behavior." Came a bored voice.

The three troublemakers stopped attempting to kill each other and turned to the three figures further down the road (having not stopped to fool around).

"Come. We do not want to get there and have her gone on a mission." The speaker continued.

"And if she is on a mission, un?" Deidara was the first to catch up.

"Then we hunt her down, naturally."

The six Akatsuki members nodded in agreement.

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><p><strong>Finished! Wa-lah~! All in one day, Shannaro! (So as such, don't sue me for any grammar mistakes)<strong>

**There will still be some one-sided SasuSaku (just to inflict pain on a certain Uchiha brat –insert sadistic cackle here-)**

**Yay! Strong Sakura is back and ready to kick ass! Aren't you all proud of me?**

**Here is the beginning of a new arc, people ^_^**

**Now let's see, how to stall the next chapter… I currently have 51 reviews… Well since I'll be busy… how about _I'll update when we get to 75 reviews_? Muwahaha yes… that'll give me a lot of time…**

**Until then, see ya! *runs away very quickly***

**Sakura: Grrrr what is your problem? 75 reviews? That's going to take a long-ass time!**

**Me (from somewhere unknown): Precisely! That way I won't feel pressured to update! Muahaha!**

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><p><em><strong>And another thing: Please check out my Bio page. It now features info on which stories I am updating and most importantly, STORY IDEAS. If you like one of my story ideas, or if you have any requests, PM me please! 3<strong>_


	17. Chapter 17

**SHEESH YOU PEOPLE ARE DEMANDING! **

**But really, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the wonderful responses! I lurve you all so much! Your reviews really made me happy~**

**75 reviews? I expected until March at least…(Yeah, pessimistic)**

**Sakura: Haha! In your face Lilithia!**

**Me: Yeah, yeah, rub it in… Anyway, here's the disclaimer. Take it away Sakura.**

**Sakura. Lilithia does not own Naruto. Or BIGBANG. Because if she owned BIGBANG she would probably gang-bang the whole- mmmrrph!**

**Me: Shut up.**

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><p><em>Chapter Seventeen: On the Trail<em>

"Are you sure you searched the entire village?" he questioned them again.

Deidara pursed his lips in what his comrades decided was eerily feminine. "Of course! Every nook and cranny."

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes and turned to Deidara's partner. "I don't know if I should trust this moron!"

Ignoring Deidara's cry of indignation, the redhead nodded. "Indeed. I had all my ears and ears in every corner of the village and confirmed that she is no longer in the village." Said redhead then proceeded to mutter about the 'general crappiness' of the puppets he had been forced to buy, since he did not have the time to make his own.

"Man, they sure are cracking the whip, eh?" Hidan chuckled. "Already sending her out on missions?"

"It's been three months, Hidan." Kakuzu rolled his eyes as he was, once again, stating an obvious fact to his decidedly retarded partner. "They lose income with every shinobi they take off the roster."

"Tch. Of course you would relate it to money, you greedy fucker."

"Money is always relevant." Kakuzu stated.

Hidan rolled his eyes. "Damn heathens. One day I'm going to burn and melt every paper and coin of yours and then what will you have? Nothing! This is why we worship Jashin! He is the ultimate Nirvana!"

"_Do not touch my money._"

The hiss of hairs and the small ring of Hidan's scythe soon accompanied the familiar sight of the two partners glaring at each other, ready to kill the other. Unfortunately for both, the object of each other's hatred was immortal. And usually became pissed after being decapitated.

"Quiet." A stoic voice cut through the air like a knife.

Reluctantly, the two immortals backed away from each other, knowing that Itachi was not to be trifled with. The ex-Konoha shinobi had been understandably on edge since they had reached his old village. It was almost like Itachi was just waiting to be surrounded.

Kisame sighed. "Look guys." He began. "We need to find where she went."

"It will no doubt be easier to obtain her when she is on a mission. She seems to be well-protected in the village, judging by the traps around her apartment." The eloquent voice of the puppeteer agreed. "We must infiltrate their headquarters and find the mission roster, maybe even the file on whatever mission she is currently on."

"How do you know where she lived?" Deidara began to look at his partner like one looks at a stalker.

There was a huff of annoyance, a silent 'DUH' accompanying his condescending tone. "Ask the right questions and look for any obvious signs. I found the Haruno crest just above the doorway."

"… So… I don't get to blow this place up, un? Or anything for that matter?"

Simultaneously they answered, "NO."

Deidara pouted. "Where's the fun in that?"

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"Hey sugar-pie." Sakura purred with a fake southern drawl. "What's a handsome thang like you doin' in this backwater place?"

"Yeah, we don't normally get such f_i_ne men out here in the woods." Ino slid her arm around the shinobi's shoulders, speaking with the same southern accent. The tall blonde, dressed in tight jeans, a red checked shirt tied just above her midriff that displayed her tight stomach, and plain brown boots, slid her behind into the man's lap. 'Accidentally' wriggling, Ino giggled playfully when she felt the rise in his pants, flicking her long braid over her shoulders.

Sakura giggled as well, draping her torso across the top of the hideous, plush violet chair that their target was sitting in. Her arms snaked around his shoulders as she placed her chin on his shoulder, drawing his head to lean into her breasts. She wore a tight tank top from which her breast almost popped out, booty-hugging ripped shorts, and a pair of scuffed boots. Her hair had been dyed blonde for this mission, or at lest the girls had tried to dye it blonde, only to receive a bright strawberry blonde instead. It still gave Sakura the 'farm-whore' look they were going for.

Ino leaned her head on the other shoulder, twirling her fingers across his chest. "You a big, bad ninja right?" she giggled. "Don't git too many of those out here."

Sakura chuckled. "Yea, much more interesting than our normal customers."

The shinobi they were seducing puffed out his chest some more, although this only made the two girls mentally roll their eyes. Both of them knew this shinobi wouldn't stand a chance against a Konoha genin.

"That's right ladies." The man growled in what was probably _supposed_ to be a sexy voice but he ended up sounding congested instead. "How much are y'all for the night?" he asked, glancing at the brothel's 'hostess'.

"If you want the two of us t'gether you must pay double the price." Ino murmured, licking his ear.

The man moaned quietly. "I'll be heading out tomorrow though…"

Ino pressed her butt firmly onto the tent in his pant while Sakura slowly began pressing her boobs a little harder against his neck.

"You sure 'bout that, hun?" Sakura whispered breathily in his ear. "I'm sure our friend up there would be generous and give you a discount…"

The man nodded, his eyes glazed over with lust. He got up, dragging the two prostitutes with him. "Well why didn't you say so?" he chuckled, and walked up to the hostess with two whores on each arm.

"I'd like these girls for the night." He stated, reaching the petite, blue haired woman.

Her creepy eyes studied him for a moment before she stated crisply, "You do realize you will have to pay for both."

"They did say you might give me a discount." He purred in what was supposed to be persuasion.

"Oh come on, 'Nata-chan!" Ino gushed. "For old times sake."

The ravenette snapped her the check book closed with a huff. "Fine." The hostess rolled her white eyes then looked at the customer. "I can add your entrance fee towards paying for these two for the night."

"Only the entrance fee?" the man guffawed.

Sakura playfully elbowed the man. "That's a good deal, considering how strict our friend here is." She giggled.

The man sighed, but thought of how much money his current mission would make after he finished delivering his message. His purse would be full in no time.

"You got a deal." He smiled lecherously at the hostess.

She looked up at him with an unimpressed stare, Pupiless eyes narrowed and she turned. "Follow me and I will lead you three to your room." She stated.

The shinobi and his prostitutes stumbled drunkenly down the hall, following the soft-spoken hostess.

"Your room." She stated, opening the door and standing to the side.

Sakura and Ino practically dragged the man inside. Without waiting for the door to close, the shinobi threw the nearest whore (Ino) onto the bed and climbed on top.

"Awah, no fair!" Sakura cried and rolled the man off of Ino. Their target found himself looking up at the whore with green eyes as she straddled him, her large breasts bouncing above him. He realized the other whore with blue eyes was still under him, his head lying on her lap as she lean over him as well.

And then it was all over as, in a whirlwind of movement, he was tied with all four limbs to every bed posts.

"Now then." The two whores and the hostess stood across from him, smirking at him with merciless eyes. "We have some questions."

The tall girl with blue eyes began forming seals with her hands as the strawberry blond girl with green eyes began twirling a kunai. The blue-haired woman locked the door, and the shinobi recognized soundproof wards surrounded the room.

He then realized he had been seduced.

And three very scary kunoichi were about to interrogate him.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"Nothing." Ino spat, dropping the body on the ground.

"We got _some_ information." Hinata said optimistically.

Ino snorted. "Yeah, vague descriptions and hazy recollections. These guys are thorough; that messenger didn't know a scrap of importance."

Sakura sighed and shoved the body into a dumpster as Hinata and Ino muttered. "Come on guys, we can talk later. We need to get out of here before someone notices us."

Ino pushed herself off the wall and grabbed two bags sitting on the ground next to her, throwing on of the packs to Sakura. Hinata picked up her own pack and they quickly exited the small town. Ino pointed towards the setting sun, indicating that they needed to head west; from what little information she had obtained from their prisoner.

Six days later, the kunoichi were camped out by a river, somewhere in the Water country. The smell of salty water blew in faintly from north of their position. A large fish was currently cooking over the fire on an iron poker.

Hinata sat by the fish, cleaning the scales off of it with a sterilized kunai, and retrieving its innards and placing them in a pot that simmered next to the grilling fish.

"Anyone want an eyeball?" she asked her friends.

Ino grimaced and motioned at Sakura. "Let forehead have it."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "It really is good for you, Pig."

"I don't care, I'd only resort to eyeballs when I'm dying." She scoffed.

Chuckling, Sakura plucked one of the fish eyes form Hinata's hand, walking up to Ino with it. "The fish is watching you!" she cooed, shoving the fish eye in front of Ino's face.

The blonde kunoichi screeched and ran away.

Hinata chuckled softly and popped her own fish eye into her mouth, watching Ino and Sakura run in a circle around camp, the first screaming insults and the later laughing maniacally.

"Stop playing with the food you guys!" Hinata laughed.

"That is _not_ food!" Ino squealed as Sakura and the eyeball came too close for her liking. "Not by my standards!"

Sakura stopped and continued to laugh, chewing the object of Ino's horror in front of her friend's face.

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Ino muttered.

Sakura laughed and joined Hinata by the fire, smirking when the blue-haired girl gave the pinkette a disapproving glare. Hinata shook her head and turned the fish over to grill the other side, then turned her attention to the soup. Stirring the soup, composed of fish innards, local herbs, and a couple spices that she always kept in her pack, Hinata thought about their mission.

Something about it made her uneasy. It made all of them uneasy, Hinata was sure that Sakura and Ino were not thrilled at the lack of details in their mission file. There were too many loose ends about their mission, and it frustrated her. No clear target, all information up in the air, and all of their information sources were carefully controlled. Heck, the messenger they had captured had a mind-lock on him- all important memories he may have had were destroyed the moment Ino had entered his mind. Ino had only been able to glimpse some information before the man had started convulsing and she had to release her jutsu. The man seemed to have gone into a seizure and created quite a racket, even with the sound-proofed walls of the room they had use. Sakura had had no choice but to slit the man's throat.

Hinata turned the fish over again and added a pinch of salt onto the meat.

_I don't like this…_ she thought. All of their trails had gone cold so far. Whoever they were supposed to being finding, these guys were leaving nearly twenty false trails, and Sakura, Ino, and Hinata had been forced to split up for the past three days to cover it all.

Sakura glanced up and saw the look in Hinata's eyes. "I don't like it either." She agreed reading Hinata's eyes, pulling a scroll from her pack where Sakura had jotted down all the information they had obtained on this mission, and opening it to look over the words. Sakura knew she must have read over the scroll several times already, and each time the words did not reveal anymore clues.

Hinata snapped out of her reverie and turned the fish over again, added another pinch of salt to the other half.

Ino sighed, sitting on the other side of the fire, stirring the spoon in the soup. "This mission has us in the dark."

Both Hinata and Sakura nodded.

"Dinner's ready." Hinata murmured.

Using a summoning scroll, Ino handed each girl a plastic plate, plastic bowl, and some cheap chopsticks. Hinata distributed the fish meat and bowls of fish soup.

"Itadakimasu." They all chorused.

Dinner was mostly Ino passing on the latest gossip, with Hinata adding in some juicy scandals she heard about Fire country politics (being the daughter of a powerful clan). Sakura licked her lips as she sipped the soup. Hinata always made the best food; Sakura swore the girl could make mud taste heavenly. After every girl had their fill, they handed cleaned the dishes in the river water (which Sakura was sure to sterilized first with one of her medical jutsus) before handing the plates for Ino to seal away until their next meal in the wilderness.

"Where to next?" Sakura asked Ino as they climbed into their sleeping rolls, Hinata just coming back from checking the traps around their camp.

Ino sighed. "All I could tell was that our targets were heading west. We'll just have to keep to the coast. They might have also been headed south, but that man's memories were slurred. First he thought 'south' but then I got the word 'north' from somewhere deeper in his mind. Then, as you know, he died."

Sakura huffed. "This mission is quickly becoming pointless."

"You can say that again." Hinata murmured softly. "Goodnight everyone."

They all replied their goodnights and closed their eyes. Except Sakura.

The pinkette stared at the stars for a long time. Lights that lit up the nights sky, twinkling in the darkness, creating clouds of lights among the dark blue. She loved the stars; they were so much brighter in the wild than in the cities. They had been extremely bright on that night…

_Flashback_

_The fresh air hit her as she climbed out. Almost hyperventilating, Sakura took in large gulps of the air, filled with the scent of trees and dirt and dew. She sat on the ledge, just staring at nothing in particular._

_Wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her chin on her knees, Sakura watched with detached curiosity as her eyes landed on a mysterious bright dot in the trees. Using her medical skills with chakra, Sakura enhanced her vision, momentarily zooming in as the world lit up in the darkness._

_End Flashback_

That had been the night she almost escaped. Sakura rolled over and stared into the dwindling fire. Her comrades had been _right there_, Naruto and Sasuke had been _right there…_

'_Naruto and Sasuke…' Inner Sakura growled._

The familiar anger rose within her. Sakura tried to tamp it down, but thoughts on what her boys- those boys whom she had grown up with, her dearest friends and comrades- had taken the most valuable thing in her life.

What was she supposed to do about them anyway? Sakura had managed to avoid Naruto well enough before being sent on this mission. And Sasuke was still under arrest. But she would have to face them sooner or later. And Naruto wasn't as dumb as people thought…

No, Naruto was probably on of the smartest people when it came to reading a person. He had no doubt picked up on her change in attitude around him. Naruto was very perceptive. Sasuke too, if Sakura was somehow roped into visiting him when she returned. But what was she supposed to do?

'_Kill them!' Inner Sakura screamed, the familiar agony of losing Sasori washing over them._

Of course, Sakura could never kill Naruto. Or Sasuke, no matter how much he deserved it. But when that rage, that _fury_ she always felt thinking about his death… Sakura could feel her anger consuming her. That moment of his death still haunted her mind, and she dreamed about it every night since his death. The raw emotions overtook her. A thirst for vengeance, to destroy those that had taken away her heart, killed the man she loved.

'_Oh Sasori...' Inner Sakura croaked._

Sakura felt her eyes sting as she closed them in an attempt to keep out the pain. Oh how her heart ached for Sasori. Even now she got lost in her memories of him, the way his hands

_-his hands on her hips and her arms wrapped around his neck. One of his arms move to wrap around her waist, and other around shoulders, and their bodies were tingling where they touched…_

Sakura could remember the way his touch had seared the memory into her body; almost feeling those artists hands now as she stared into the night. How she had shamelessly

_-ran her fingers through his hair and groaned as he began to kiss her neck…_

Letting out a long, quiet sigh of sorrow, Sakura raised her arms in the air, spreading her fingers and watching the starlight filter through them. She missed Sasori…

'_I still can't believe he is gone…' Inner whispered sadly._

Sakura's hands dropped to cover her face, and a silent sob shook her body before she stilled and allowed her arms to fall. The pinkette looked back over to the fire to see it had already died. She must have been thinking of Sasori for a long time without realizing it…

Tucking her face into the crook of her arms, Sakura allowed herself to fall asleep.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"Sakura wake up!"

Green eyes flew open as the pinkette sat up with a groan. _'Didn't I just close my eyes five seconds ago?'_ she thought angrily. She glanced up at the sun rising in the sky. _'Huh. Guess not.'_

"Sakura! Move your ass! We have a messenger hawk from Konoha!" Ino admonished non-too-gently as she ripped the blankets out from under Sakura.

Rubbing her sore bottom, the pinkette locked glares with the blonde. "I hate you." Sakura muttered grumpily, standing up and walking over to where Hinata stood with a hawk on her arm. The Hyuuga handed the scroll to her team captain.

"What does it say?" Ino and Hinata asked eagery as Sakura's eyes widened.

There was a long pause before Sakura found the words.

"Pack your things." Sakura ordered.

"What?" the other kunoichi cried. "We've been following these guys for a week now and you want us to pack?"

Sakura glared at them, finally looking up from the paper in her hands. "Jaraiya-sama called for us."

Now the other girls sobered. A tense atmosphere quickly developed as they processed the meaning of such a summon. It must be bad, they all concluded.

"D-Does it say what for?" Hinata asked quietly.

Sakura glowered at the scroll and ran her hand through her hair in frustration. "Apparently we've been on the wrong trail."

Ino and Hinata did not like the sound of this at all.

"Jaraiya-sama found what we have been looking for in Rain." Sakura concluded.

"RAIN?" Ino and Hinata shared a disbelieving glance.

Ino scoffed. "Rain is nothing but a backwater, run-down metal shell! There's nothing important left there!"

Hinata took a few seconds to think. "Well, it is one of the least monitored countries." She nodded. "It would be a good place for someone to hide, especially from Konoha. And that country has been in turmoil for so long that the powerful can easily slip by unnoticed."

Ino huffed. "Thanks for making me sound like the dumb one, Hina."

Hinata giggled. "You _are _the blonde."

"_What did you just say?_" Ino asked in a dangerously sweet voice, pulling on Hinata's ear. "Because I _know_ you did _not_ just crack a blonde joke."

"Girls."

The two (supposedly fearsome) kunoichi looked up at the glowering captain. "I am not done."

There was a tense pause.

"What else is there?" Ino asked in a low voice.

Sakura hesitated.

"Say it, Sakura." Hinata ordered.

Sakura held up the scroll. On it was a symbol, hastily drawn in Jaraiya's atrocious handwriting. It looked similar to the Hyuuga's 'caged bird' symbol, but because slight changes in the lines, the symbol could be perceived as 'bird set free'.

At the sight of it, Hinata's eyes filled with utter terror and she fainted.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"Man, Konoha really is just a bunch of pussies." Hidan muttered.

Itachi's eyes flashed.

"What?" Hidan asked defensively. "It's not like you're one of 'em anymore. I can see why you left, now, Pink Eye. These guys are all wussies. I could take 'em with both my arms cut off."

Itachi almost sighed. _Almost._ Instead, he turned away from the infuriating idiot and stared at the village in the distance, as if somehow willing Sasori and Kakuzu to appear.

"You glaring at the village is not going to make them return sooner." Kisame chuckled.

Itachi did not reply.

"Why couldn't I have infiltrated the Leaf?" Deidara whined.

Kisame's head whipped to glare at the blonde. "You would just blow things up."

Deidara looked offended.

Kisame's finger pointed at Hidan. "And your potty-mouth would be a dead giveaway."

Hidan grinned proudly.

The blue finger landed on Itachi. "And this guy can't even go _near_ the village because there are too many people who would still recognize him, even in he henged." To Kisame's Uchiha-trained eye, Itachi pouted (in the stoic Uchiha manner, of course, imperceptible to the human eye). "Just the slightest slip and Itachi's chakra signature will set off every alarm imaginable in that place."

There was a tense silence.

"I wonder if there are any Jashin-worshippers there?" Hidan asked suddenly out of the blue.

All three Akatsuki members gave Hidan the 'what-do-you-think?' look.

"What?" Hidan asked defensively. "I'm trying to _save_ their _souls_. Fuckers should be goddamn ecstatic to be sacrificed to Jashin-sama!"

"Dude, no one cares about your Janken." Kisame gave Hidan a shark-toothed grin.

"Heathen!" came Hidan's battle-cry.

3 minutes later…

"I swear, you fucking Fish-dick!" Hidan's decapitated head roared. "That was cheating!"

Deidara's face became thoughtful. _'Do fishes even have dicks? I wonder…'_

"I'd say being immortal is cheating too, so we are even." Kisame laughed with his large sword resting on his shoulder, grinning down at the head under his foot.

Not too far away, Hidan's body was feeling around for its head. Kisame left Hidan's head on the ground and joined Deidara and Itachi, quite pleased with himself. Meanwhile, Hidan attempted to direct his body to the location of his head.

"Over here!"

"No, not there!"

"Dammit! The other way."

Itachi had to admit, watching Hidan's body flail its limbs around looking for its missing head was pretty funny. Beside him, Deidara was gripping his stomach, laughing so hard there were tears in his eyes. Even Kisame was gasping for breath.

Hidan's body walked into a tree, the arm smacking into the tree beside it.

"Motherfucker!" Hidan roared at the incapable body of his.

This was how the remaining Akatsuki found them.

Kakuzu smirked with glee at the sight of what Kisame did to Hidan. "What did the moron do now?" he asked.

"I called his religion Janken." Kisame grinned. "You know I can never remember the name of his stupid religion." He added sarcastically.

Kakuzu laughed. Really, the only time the old zombie was genuinely happy was when Hidan was suffering.

"It's Jashin! You blue-skinned freak!" Hidan's voice floated up to them from the ground level. "You too Kakuzu! You sadistic fucker!"

"Why don't you focus less on our conversation and more on re-attaching your head." A cool voice cut in. "Leader has summoned us back to the base. You might want to take your head along with us."

Everyone save Kakuzu snapped their heads to look at the sixth party member.

"But we haven't even found Sakura-chan yet!" Deidara protested.

Kakuzu shook his head. "Apparently something came up. Leader wants all the Akatsuki members to be where he can easily reach them. Apparently he's worried…" Kakuzu's voice trailed off thoughtfully.

Kisame frowned. "Anything that has Leader worried had got to be bad."

Itachi nodded thoughtfully, the gears turning in his head.

Deidara moped. "Dammit, I hate rain! It makes my hair all frizzy!"

They others gave him alarmed looks.

"I told y'all he was transvestite." Hidan said as his body walked up with the head tucked under its arm. It was a disturbing sight to see.

"I am surrounded by idiots…" the member in the back muttered.

* * *

><p><strong>Yeah, I'm sorry, I honestly wasn't prepared to write all this out, I still only had a vague idea about what I wanted to do with this chapter. But I promised to update at 75 reviews… I would have begun working on it sooner, but I lost count of the review and one day it was just POP! "Oh look, 75 reviews… Crap I promised to update!" *runs to the computer*<strong>

**So yeah. And I was really stressed writing this, so this chapter is crappy, with a little bit of laughs here and there (trying to make it light-hearted since I seemed to depress everyone with Sasori's 'death').**

**I was surprised when I didn't get any Sasori-fangirl death threats for that…*smiles like an idiot***

**Anyway, this is basically building up to what I've planned for the next chapter, since I couldn't fit all of it into only one. CONGRATS TO _Sasorina_ FOR BEING MY 75TH REVIEWER! *applause***

**Don't worry my lovely readers, I do plan on finishing this story. But if I don't update for a while, blame school and the fact that I totally think we should have three-day weekends instead of two. ~Lilithia**


	18. Chapter 18

_Chapter Eighteen: Developments_

"Sakura."

The woman in question frowned. "Yes?"

"I-I'm sorry t-to disturb y-you b-but," Sakura and Ino stopped focusing on the village they were all observing and stared at Hinata. "I have t-to a-admit that I am a-afraid."

Sakura and Ino looked at each other in worry. Hinata had stopped stuttering nearly two years ago, and certainly not while on a mission with them. If her nerves were that bad, Sakura worried on whether she should allow Hinata on this mission.

"Would you like me to send you back and ask for a replacement?" Ino looked up horrified at Sakura.

"NO!" Hinata yelped. "Um… No. I… I won't go. I am not weak!"

Sakura nodded in satisfaction, hiding a smirk.

"We are here, Hinata." Ino spoke gently. "You don't have to be afraid. Sakura and I will have your back."

Hinata nodded grimly.

Sakura turned back to the glowing village, the night sky lit up as their lights bounced off the ever present rain clouds. The three kunoichi were wary of the rain surrounding the village, heeding Jaraiya's warning not to near or be touched by the rain. At present, they were waiting for Jaraiya to show up and smuggle them into the city.

Behind Sakura, Hinata wrung her hands together, nervously fiddling her fingers. The symbol on the scroll haunted her mind, and each time she thought about it caused a shiver to run up and down her spine. Simply put, she was terrified of that symbol. "_Bird set free_" was a symbol of-

"Hinata."

Hinata's head shot up.

"Don't worry." Ino admonished. "We don't even know if we will run into them."

She reluctantly nodded.

"Hello my beautiful kunoichi!" They all turned to see Jaraiya walking towards them. "How are my lovely ladies doing today? Any sleepovers in lacy thongs lately?"

In the blink of an eye Jaraiya found himself dodging a whirlwind of kunai and senbon, Sakura walking towards him with a glowing green hand, Hinata's Byakugan activated. He held his hands up in surrender, but the three women ignored him, and soon Jaraiya was on the floor, chakra points blocked and all nerves paralyzed. Ino glared daggers at him, holding a kunai at his crotch.

"What did shisou tell you about harassing her kunoichi?" Sakura snapped, resisting the urge to cross her arms to hide her breasts.

Ino huffed. "Like _that's _ever gonna stop him. Tsunade-sama would have to pluck out his eyes before he stopped being a creeper."

Jaraiya managed to look scared and offended at the same time. "B-But-"

"Save it, Jaraiya-san." Sakura sighed. "Just tell us how we are going to get in."

Jaraiya nodded, and the Sakura healed his nervous system while Hinata unblocked his chakra channels. He bit his thumb and quickly went through the hand signs. With a loud _poof _and a cloud of smoke, a large frog appeared, opening its mouth. Jaraiya motioned them to enter the frogs' mouth. The women gave him incredulous looks.

"Ew." Sakura stated.

"Oh hell no." Ino deadpanned.

Hinata paled. "Er… You are not seriously asking us…"

The frog huffed in annoyance. "Hey, it's not pleasant for me either so get it over with!"

"I am _not_ going into that… that… slimy… _thing._" The Yamanaka stated with finality.

"It's an amphibian." Sakura corrected her.

"Shut up SmartyPants."

Jaraiya rubbed his forehead. "It is the only way in, girls."

Hinata felt lightheaded.

Sakura glanced back at the rain clouded village and sighed, wrinkling her nose as her gaze went back to the frog. "Get in girls."

"Um. No." Ino turned up her nose and Hinata subtly looked away.

Sakura's eyes sharpened. "That's an order."

Both kunoichi glared at Sakura (yes, Hinata too) and grudgingly approached the frog.

"Ewwww…" Hinata muttered and jumped down the long tunnel that was the Summon's throat. The frog soon began coughing and had to close its mouth and swallow. Ino began feel ill; she was about to be swallowed by a gigantic _amphibian!_

"You okay?" Jaraiya asked.

"Yeah. "The frog nodded. "That girl fainted halfway down my throat and hit my esophagus like a dead weight."

Ino and Sakura sighed.

"Next?" the frog asked.

Ino shot a scathing glare at Sakura. "I will not forget this, Forehead." She growled before jumping into the open mouth.

Sakura sighed and walked towards the frog, turning to Jaraiya. "Ino and Hinata will want revenge." She then smirked. "And for your earlier perverseness, I think I'll let them punish you instead of me."

Jaraiya gulped as Sakura entered the frog. The frog swallowed before opening its mouth again to allow its master in to follow the kunoichi.

"I'm so dead." He muttered before entering the frog.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"So this is Amegakure…" Sakura murmured, looking out the window of the rundown building they were in from the third floor. She ran her fingers through her black hair, wrinkling her nose at the hair that still smelled of dye.

A brunette Ino joined Sakura by the window, watching the sheets of rain pour onto the street. "That's one hell of a jutsu."

Hinata's brown eyes flashed back and forth as her Byakugan observed the rain from behind her contacts. "I've never seen anything like it! The sheer amount of chakra needed, and the control such a jutsu would take! It's remarkable!"

The smallest change in appearance can make a big difference. Hinata's hair was pulled into a braid, changing her the look of her face dramatically. Ino's hair had been dyed reddish brown, taken out of its usual ponytail and now tied into low pigtails, the sidebangs on the right side of her face pinned back. Sakura's hair had previously grown down to her shoulders before she cut it into a shorter-than-normal pixie cut, dying her obnoxious pink strands black.

Sakura nodded and turned back to Jaraiya. "Has Tsunade contacted us yet?"

The Sannin shook his head. "No. And if she does not give us an order soon we will have to head into this blind."

All the shinobi grimaced. Ino huffed. "How would we get past that rain in the first place? It's, like, the ultimate defense!"

"Indeed." Jaraiya laced his fingers together and leaned his chin on them.

Ino huffed and pushed herself off the windowsill. "Well I'm gonna go do some more scouting. It's way too boring being holed up in this place."

And just like every time one of them went outside, Jaraiya warned, "Don't get caught."

Ino nodded seriously. "Of course, Jaraiya-sama." The sound of fluttering fabric signaled Ino pulling a rain cloak around her shoulders, snapping the buttons closed, and putting a straw hat over hear head, pulling her hood over the hat as well. On her feet were knee-high boots, her hands were gloved, and an umbrella in her hands.

"I'm off darlings." She smirked, heading to the door and down the stairs. The others nodded quietly as she left.

Once on the street, Ino ducked her head, forced to be extra careful to keep the chakra-infused rain from touching her skin. The faded red umbrella kept most of the rainwater off her shoulders, leaning the handle against her shoulder. Ino didn't have any particular reason for leaving the warehouse, only that she hated the feeling of getting absolutely nothing done.

Ino walked to her favorite spot in the city: the marketplace, naturally. As she approached the first stall, the kind middle-aged vendor smiled up at her customer.

"Chiyemi-san." Ino greeted the lady, a shorter woman with sad brown eyes and dark green hair pulled into a low ponytail. The stall sold fresh hot sugar buns, with a light dusting of cinnamon, a rarity in Ame. Whenever Ino went out into the depressing village, she always bought a roll to keep her spirits up.

"Hana-san." Chiyemi greeted Ino, already packaging Ino's regular order. "It is good to see you again."

Ino smiled from under her hat down at the vendor, paying Chiyemi for the sugar buns. Leaning against the stall, Ino pulled a roll out of the paper bag and bit into it. "Any juicy gossip lately?"

Chiyemi smirked, leaning in o whisper in Ino's ear. "Well, I hear that Royu, the jeweler, was caught cheating on his wife with Yuya!"

Ino gasped. "The butcher's wife! That's suicide!"

Cheyemi giggled. "Aa. And then this morning Royu found a pig's head at his doorstep, still bleedin' and eyeballin'. Bet you can guess who that was from."

Ino snickered. "Serves that slippery scoundrel right. Never liked Royu, all shifty eyes and bouncy hair."

The two women giggled together, Ino turning her back to the street as two Ame shinobi walked by. As Ino waited for the shinobi to pass, she took out a sugar bun and bit into it, thinking. Although Chiyemi had been reluctant to speak the first time Ino asked her for gossip, Ino had since gotten Chiyemi, as well as other Ame citizens, to open up to her. She had always had a knack for getting people to talk. In the case of the wary citizens of Ame, Ino had to start by only asking for meaningless gossip, such as who was cheating on who and so on.

Now Ino leaned in. "I saw some poor Ame ninja got his ass kicked by a fellow kunoichi the other day! Would you believe the idiot actually tried to grab a kunoichi's butt?"

Chiyemi's eyes widened, flashing back and forth to make sure there were no shinobi around to hear their conversation before leaning in. "Really?"

Ino snickered. "You would think that these shinobi would know better than to grope a woman holding a weapon."

Chiyemi winced. "Men are all idiots."

"Don't I know it…" Ino sighed, leaning an elbow on the stall and beginning on another sugar roll.

"Do I sense boy problems, Hana-san?" Chiyemi's eyes lit up.

Ino sensed another patrol of Ame shinobi walking passed, and kept up her gossip so that the enemy shinobi would not notice her cloaked figure.

"Men are so dumb." Ino huffed, but kept her attention on the shinobi behind her, doing a horrid job at pretending not to listen in. _Honestly, they are a disgrace to all shinobi._ Ino thought. _If you don't want to be caught listening in on someone's conversation, you don't stand around and play bored._

"Tell me." Chiyemi's curious prompting brought Ino back to the conversation. "Who is this man that has the beautiful Hana-san pining after him?"

Ino scowled. "I'm not _pining_."

Chiyemi giggled and broke away form the conversation for a moment to attend a customer. "You are indeed _pining_, my young friend." She snickered when she came back.

"And I don't like him. I mean, I like him, but as a friend. Geez, we've known each other since we were kids! He's like a brother to me!" Ino huffed.

Chiyemi raised an eyebrow. "I sense denial."

"He is the laziest ass you will ever meet, and doesn't have a clue about women-"

"There isn't a man in this world that has a clue about women, Hana-san." Chiyemi interrupted.

"- he never pays attention, yet always has to argue with me, _and that smirk of his!_" Ino crossed her arms. "It is infuriating. I honestly don't know how I put up with him."

"Sounds like love to me…" Chiyemi sighed, making Ino stare at her.

"Excuse me?"

Chiyemi crossed her arms. "Hana-san, forgive me for saying this, but you are in so much denial right now."

Ino fought the blush on her cheeks. "I don't like him." She muttered.

Chiyemi squealed. "Awww someone has a crush."

Ino finished up her sugar rolls and threw the bag away in the trash can next to the stall. "I do not." She sulked.

"Well I got some better news." Chiyemi whispered, glancing at the two shinobi that were no longer paying attention to their whispering. "I heard that some dumb-ass drunk hit on God's Angel and got killed. Serves him right."

Ino's eyebrows shot up. "God's Angel? Someone was hitting on her and she killed him?"

"She is Akatsuki, dear, you know how they are." Chiyemi waved it off. "Besides, this village has enough riff-raff, and it was about time someone set them in their place. Paper cut him to oblivion she did."

Ino nodded, her thoughts swirling. "Anyway, I should get going. I always get way too distracted when it comes to gossiping."

Chiyemi smirked but stayed silent, waving goodbye to her customer.

As Ino walked away, her eyes strayed to the two Ame shinobi leaning against a crate, talking to each other. It seemed her gossiping had bored them. Ino rolled her eyes; these ninjas were way too easily distracted. She walked into the nearest alleyway, doubled checking that her chakra was hidden before flash stepping onto the roof, hiding in the shadows.

In the middle of the village, a tall building loomed over the city. The Akatsuki headquarters. Ino stealthily made her way towards the building, keeping out of sight and wary of any other shinobi that might be roof hopping. Once she neared the building, she dropped to street level, knowing that the roofs were going to be heavily guarded. Spotting a little café with a perfect view of the Akatsuki building, Ino entered the establishment.

There was a room just before entering the café where customers could take off their raincoats and put down their umbrellas away form the rain. Ino lowered the hood of her cloak and hung up her hat, leaning her umbrella against he wall beside the coat rack. After she hung her cloak up as well, Ino entered the café and order a nice steaming cup of hot cocoa.

"That's the stuff." Ino smiled as she thanked her server and began to sip the hot chocolate, adding a few mini-marshmallows for good measure. She glanced out the window next to her table, staring up at the sky, careful not to let her eyes stray to the Akatsuki building for too long so that she wouldn't raise any suspicions.

After five minutes or so, Ino heard the rustle of clothing approaching, and had to force herself not to reach for her kunai holster. She glanced up to see an Ame shinobi grinning down at her charmingly, with long brown hair pulled into a low ponytail and sparkling gray eyes. He sat down across form her with gracefulness that only chuunin and above shinobi could possess, ordering tea from the server before focusing on Ino.

"Can I help you?" Ino asked, unable to hide her irritation at the man sitting at her table without her consent.

"Forgive my lack of manners." Ino was shocked by his cultured voice, smooth and low. "I simply had to investigate such a striking woman as yourself."

Ino gave him an unimpressed look. "Why?" she asked suspiciously, sipping from her steaming mug.

The ninja laughed. "It is not everyday that a proper lady shows up in a place like this."

"Do you mean Ame?" Ino questioned. "And how do you know what a proper lady looks like?"

"From you posture. Your manners. Your entire demeanor screams status." The man chuckled.

Ino resisted the urge to huff, although as she studied the man before her, she could clearly tell he also had training in conduct. She racked her brain to recall if there were any high-ranking clans from Ame, for this shinobi sure acted like a clan-member.

"Forgive me if I seem offending." Ino said carefully. "But I do not even know your name."

"Ah! How could I forget? My mother would be ashamed." He flashed her a charming smiled. "Let me introduce myself. I am Yamada Masaru."

Ino held out her hand to shake his, stating her cover without hesitation. "I am Nisou Hana. It is a pleasure to meet you, Masaru-san."

Masaru smirked and shook her hand, Ino pulling her hand form his before he could kiss it.

"Now why would a clan shinobi want to speak to a stranger in a café?" Ino asked him.

Masaru leaned closer. "Can't a ninja take off five minutes to hit on a beautiful woman?"

Personally, Ino did not feel pretty at all with her golden locks dyed brown and pulled into pigtails. Her disbelief must have shown on her face because Masaru suddenly smiled.

"You do not believe me?" he asked.

Ino glared at her reddish-brown pigtails. "The humidity frizzing my hair doesn't exactly make me feel beautiful." She muttered.

Masaru laughed. "I assure you, you are one of the most stunning women I have ever seen in this village."

Ino leaned back and sipped her hot cocoa. "Uh-huh." She deadpanned. "Okay, what do you really want?"

The admittedly gorgeous male pretended to be offended. "You wound me, dear lady." Then he gave her a dashing smile that would have made Ino swoon if she weren't currently in enemy territory with an enemy shinobi flirting with her.

"I was wondering if you needed a guide to show you the sights? Maybe take you to a nice restaurant?" Masaru chuckled. "Believe it or not, there are some nice places around here."

_I just got asked out on a date with by an enemy shinobi. Wait until Sakura hears this. She'll have a heart attack! Ha!_ Ino gave Masaru a coy smile. "Alright. I'll give you a shot."

Masaru chuckled, flashing perfect teeth, and Ino resisted the urge to sigh at such a handsome young man. It was truly a shame she would probably end up assassinating him. Hopefully they could have sex before then. Or at least see him shirtless.

"I'll be here tomorrow around noon." Ino told him, standing up from the table, mug of hot cocoa finished.

Masaru finished his cup of tea and stood as well, bowing like a gentleman. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Hana-san."

Ino chuckled. "The pleasure was mine, Masaru-san."

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"I have a date tomorrow!"

Sakura, Hinata, and Jaraiya all spat out their tea, or in Sakura's case, began to choke on it.

"_What?_" Sakura rasped after Hinata spent a good minute thumping her on the back.

Ino gave everyone a shit-eating grin. "I. Got. A. Date."

"_With who?_" Sakura gaped.

Striking a pose, hip cocked out, hand on her said hip, other hand pointing to herself, Ino smiled like a satisfied cat. "This chick got a date with an Amegakure shinobi?"

"WHAT?" everyone screamed.

"Well it's not like I was trying." Ino crossed her arms, thoroughly enjoying the look on everyone's faces. "I just happened to be enjoying some hot chocolate in a quaint little cafe when I caught his eye."

"And you said 'yes'?" Hinata asked her incredulously.

Ino sighed. "For the mission, duh. Hopefully I can use him somehow… And hopefully see his shirtless before I have to kill him. HE WAS SO HANDSOME!"

Sakura and Hinata sweatdropped, Jaraiya rubbing his forehead in exasperation.

"It's not a bad idea actually." The Sannin said.

"Eh?" Hinata and Ino stared.

"He's right." Sakura nodded in agreement. "But we need to be careful. What if they know we are here and are targeting Ino? What if this is a set up? Then again, this-" Sakura looked at Ino.

"His name is Masaru Yamada." Ino told her.

"-this Masaru Yamada might actually be oblivious to Ino's affiliation and could provide us with information." Sakura leaned back in her chair.

Ino sat down, facing everyone. "I think we should take it. I've been on more dangerous missions; this will be a breeze. Besides, it is the only thing we got right now, considering our hands are tied until Tsunade-sama contacts us."

Jaraiya scratched his hairline absently. "When are you meeting him again?"

"Tomorrow."

…

"Alright then." Jaraiya clapped his hands. "I think we can make this work…"

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

_One month later_

"You called, Tsunade-sama?" Neji asked, glancing at the other shinobi that had been called to her office.

Shikamaru sat leaned against the wall, an unlit cigarette in his mouth, his eyes resting lazily on the Hokage. He was also wondering why Neji, Sai, and himself were here. No doubt it had to do with wherever Sakura, Ino, and Hinata were. Those three had been gone for almost a month now. Shikamaru narrowed his eyes. He hated the curling in his stomach whenever Ino was gone for long periods of time.

He was not worried.

Nope.

Dammit, he hated worrying over that loud-mouth blondie.

"I'm sending you three to Amegakure."

Shikamaru almost let the cigarette fall from his mouth. "Amegakure?" he drawled.

Tsunade sighed. "I've had agents there for the past month."

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes.

"But now it seems they've come across a problem and need reinforcements." Tsunade finished, but her eyes worried.

Neji nodded. "We'll head there right away."

Tsunade tossed the mission scroll to Neji. "You'll be captain. Jaraiya will meet you outside the village walls at the designated area. Whatever you do, DO NOT touch the rain. Do you understand?"

The three shinobi stared at their Hokage.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Sai answered for them.

As they turned to leave her office, Shikamaru felt a strange shiver of fear run down his spine as he spotted Tsunade's face crumble into anxiety once she thought they were not looking.

_Ino… you better be okay._

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"It's bee one whole fucking goddamn month!" Hidan snarled.

He glared at the quiet Kakuzu, who was too busy counting his money to ever take watch.

"Figures he's just ignore me…" Hidan growled. "Man this is so fucking boring. When is the next patrol coming?"

"We are already here, Hidan." Itachi said softly.

"Finally! What took you so long red eyes?" Hidan asked loudly, oblivious to the tick in Itachi's eyes.

Kisame quickly spoke to keep Itachi from doing something to the Jashinist. "Hidan, Kakuzu, you might want to get back to Amegakure. Leader-sama is getting angry about so many of his fighters being away."

"It's his fucking fault for assigning the others." Hidan growled.

Kakuzu rolled his eyes. "You volunteered to watch Konoha, in case that kunoichi showed up."

The Akatsuki members had set up patrols to keep watch on Konoha for the past month, every pair of partners taking a week or so to watch for Sakura. Since Leader-sama had begun assigning them all new missions away from the village, the missing-nins have had little time to keep an eye out for their pinkette. Deidara and his partner were currently assigned to something in Wave, Itachi and Kisame just came back form snow, and now Hidan and Kakuzu would be meeting up with Tobi and Zetsu in Sound (something about Kabuto or whatever).

"Maybe we should be looking elsewhere." Itachi murmured to Kisame as they watched Kakuzu and Hidan race off towards their destination.

"Like where? Amegakure? Ha!" Kisame laughed at his own joke. "If only that little Pinky would show up there; sure would make things easy."

Itachi said nothing, watching Konoha, rain clouds approaching in the distance. "Hn."

* * *

><p><strong>TT_TT i know, this chapter sucks. I'm so sorry I couldn't fit anything exciting in. Gaaaaaaah I'm a failure...<strong>


	19. Chapter 19

**DON'T OWN NARUTO. NOPE.**

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><p><em>Chapter Nineteen: Pass Me By<em>

'_We are so screwed right now.'_ Sakura thought as she glared at her surroundings. From the looks of Hinata and Ino beside her, they were having similar thoughts.

"Kuso!" Ino cursed, glaring at the steel, chakra absorbing shackles that hung her form her wrists against the cold cement wall, in the exact same position as the her teammates. "Well now we are in deep shit…"

"Keep your voice down, we can't let them see they are getting to us." Hinata told her softly, her eyes calculating as she observed their situation. "We will find a way out, don't worry."

"I can't help but feel that this is my fault…" Ino moaned, but her voice was quieter, heeding Hinata's advice. Ino mentally face palmed herself another million times.

Sakura glared at Ino. "That won't help us now, so grow a backbone, kunoichi. We can feel sorry for ourselves after we are out of this mess. Right now nothing would come of blaming you, or anyone else."

Ino nodded, her jaw flexing. "Right."

"Now then," Sakura turned to Hinata. "How do you suppose we get ourselves out of this situation? I don't know about you, but I'm starting to lose blood flow to my arms."

Since Hinata had been the only one conscious when they had been dragged into this _delightful_ prison, she was the only one with a clue on how they could escape. But as she opened her mouth to speak, they heard footsteps. Instantly, the kunoichis' faces became unreadable, their eyes glaring at the door, daring the person on the other side to come in.

There was no handle on the prison door, not from their side of the cell anyway, so they used their ears to listen to the deadbolts slide out of place and the faintest squeal of the handle turning on the other side of the door. The girls sucked in a collective breath when the man walked in, their eyes locking on what he was wearing. Hinata felt fury rise inside her.

"Akatsuki." Ino and Hinata hissed.

Sakura hid her fear by raising her eyebrows in slight surprise. _I don't know this one… But if he heard of me from the other members_- Her mind shied away from the thought of Sasori, dead, body rotting on that forgotten plain- _He might recognize me. I can't have my comrades put in that kind of danger._

At the very least, she could be tried for treason to Konoha. Sakura thanked the gods that her hair had yet to grow out of the black color she had dyed it to hide herself among the citizens of Ame. Ino's hair still looked a boring brown as well.

"Now then." The man who entered spoke up, his face cast in shadow from the dim lighting of their prison cell. All they knew for sure about this man was that the cloak he wore was definitely Akatsuki. "It would seem you three ladies know where I am from, yes? But I do not know where you are from."

Like hell they would tell this creep that they were from Konoha.

"Silent treatment?" the man's voice told them that he was amused. Suddenly his voice lowered to an ominous hiss. "You will be screaming before long." And then he laughed, the kind of laugh that Sakura imagined bad guys standing in front of a mirror and practicing. The kind of laugh she had never taken seriously from most wann-be-badass rogue ninjas that try to steal cookies.

Except this guy pulled it off. And it was scaring the shit out of Hinata, Ino, and Sakura.

"So…" the man stood and opened door, allowing some masked men wheel in a steel table and a cart piled with many sharp objects. "Who wants to go first?"

The temperature in the room dropped to zero.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Jaraiya paced for the ninety-first time from the tree to the boulder, in the exact little clearing he had met with the kunoichi team over a month and a half ago. The thought of the disaster that had happened reeled in his mind. He should have been there; He should have seen something like this happening; He should have made them take more precaution; He should have made more back up plans; He never should have let Tsunade send them in Ame in the first place…. Shoulda, woulda, coulda.

It wouldn't help those kunoichi right now.

"Jaraiya, you are gonna wear a path in the damn grass." The lazy, guttural voice of a large frog sounded to his left, where one of his Summons at lazily in a rather comfortable patch of damp green grass.

"The team should have showed up by now." Jaraiya muttered.

The frog rolled his eyes. "They aren't due to show for another half hour or so. Don't get your knickers in a knot."

Jaraiya ignored the blasé attitude of the frog, allowing another wave of anxiety to overtake him. The memories of what Ame had done to its prisoners during theThird Shinobi War… Jariaya shivered at how the survivors had looked after being rescued. It wasn't pretty. And he doubted that Ame had changed the severity of its torture techniques in the past decade or so, considering the hand fate had dealt the suffering Hidden Village. He hoped to any god he ever heard of that whoever was holding the kunoichis captive did not know that those women were from Konoha. Otherwise they might already be dead.

The sound of a foot purposely crunching grass knocked Jaraiya out of his pessimistic musings. He whirled around to see the telltale pineapple-ponytail of Shikamaru from behind an ANBU mask, and another ANBU on Shikamaru's left flank that Jaraiya recognized as Neji. Who else was stoic and manly enough to pull off such a long ponytail? Jaraiya didn't know who the other ANBU operative was.

"You can remove your masks." Jaraiya told them. "We can't let anything give away that we are from Konoha. That means your anything that will give you away needs to be removed."

Reluctantly, the ninja team in front of him removed their masks and hitai-ate. Jaraiya nodded to a small, water-proofed alcove in a tree not far from the clearing. It was close enough to the village for Jaraiya to drop off his information to be gathered for Konoha intel, but far enough away that neither Ame's border patrol or the Amekage's rain jutsu could sense it.

Shikamaru, Neji, and the operative Jaraiya now recognized as that weird, sexually stunted kid Sai, placed their belongings in the alcove, and then cast a couple protective jutsus, traps, and genjutsus on it.

"Geez, you know you could always ask the Hokage for a new hitai-ate or ANBU mask." The frog behind Jaraiya grumbled over their protectiveness.

The shinobi ignored the Summon.

"So the mission scroll told us nothing other than this was a rescue op." Shikamaru crossed his arms and squared off with Jaraiya. Neji stood next to Shikamaru, shoulder to shoulder, giving Jaraiya an intensely uncomfortable Hyuuga stare. Jaraiya never did like those x-ray eyes of theirs. Sai just stood on Shikamaru's other side and stared blankly at the village of Ame. Jaraiya swore the kid was retarded!

Shaking his head, Jaraiya returned his sad gaze to Shikamaru. "A team of ANBU were sent into Ame to look for evidence on some rumors I had heard. Not to mention looking into a strange trail that they themselves had been after."

"And they got captured." Neji interrupted rudely. Being a perfectionist, he was extremely displeased at the lack of information in the mission scroll that Tsunade had given him (Shikamaru was team captain, but everyone know the genius would have been too lazy to catch the scroll). "Would you mind telling us just how bad this situation is?"

Jaraiya furrowed his brows. "Let me see the scroll."

Taking the scroll from Shikamaru's hands, Jaraiya quickly scanned its contents. His gaze flickered from the scroll to the shinobi, back to the scroll, and then back to the shinobi. He then sighed.

"I see." He muttered, his face showing his displeasure. "This won't be easy then."

"What do you mean?" Neji demanded in a calm, but frustrated voice. Both he and Shikamaru wondered what Jaraiya had seen in that scroll that they hadn't. They had spent the whole trip to Ame wondering what kind of mission this was supposed to be (because if a team of ANBU needed to be rescued, something was obviously going wrong).

Jaraiya was silent for a couple seconds, staring at the scrolls. He sighed again and gave it back to Shikamaru, who pocketed it once more. Obviously, Tsunade had not wanted the men to know who had been captured, to prevent their emotions from getting in the way. But why hadn't she told them-

Jaraiya shook his head. He would deal with that when the time came.

"Alright, get in the frog."

This time, even Sai looked at Jaraiya with a look of shock, mirrored on the faces of Shikamaru and Neji as well.

"Oh hell no." Shikamaru deadpanned.

'_Funny, your girlfriend said the same exact thing.' _Jaraiya mentally muttered.

Neji just glared at the frog, burning holes into its amphibious skin with his pupils eyes. The frog began to shift nervously, avoiding Neji's gaze yet still feeling as if he were being burned alive. What a creepy dude. Sai somehow managed to glare at Jaraiya with a stoic expression, however that had worked out.

"I'm not jumping inside of a frog." Neji stated firmly.

Jaraiya crossed his arms. "It's the only way in, and if you want to see the crime scene, you need to avoid being detected by Ame. And you see that rain over there?" Jaraiya pointed to the gray sheet descending from the clouds above the village. "If even a drop of that water touches you, they'll find you."

At the incredulous looks of the shinobi, Jaraiya nodded and told them, "It's one helluva jutsu that the Amekage created to sense anyone leaving or entering the village."

Neji activated his Byakugan and stared into the rain and swore. "Fuck."

Shikamaru and Sai raised their eyebrows and turned to their comrade. "That bad?" Shikamaru asked.

Neji nodded. "They entire thing is filled with chakra. I don't know how a living person could ever sustain such a jutsu, unless he were to be a jinchuuriki." The Hyuuga glanced at Jaraiya. "Is he a jinchuuriki?"

Jaraiya shook his head. "That is highly unlikely, since Ame did not receive a demon after the war. And I haven't heard of any jinchuuriki that escaped their village and came to this part of the country."

Neji's eyes widened as he turned to look again at the village. "Most ninja would die within hours trying to hold such a jutsu and supply such a huge amount of chakra. If they were lucky, maybe they could even hold this for a day. That's it."

"So not even someone like Kisame could do this?" Sai asked.

"No." Neji answered, his eyes still glued to the scene before him.

Shikamaru rubbed his temples. "We can think about this later. Right now we need to get into the village." The Nara heir glance at the frog with a grimace and sighe din defeat. "Come on, team. We should hop into the frog now."

"Ha ha you are sooo funny." The frog muttered sarcastically before opening his mouth wide.

Jaraiya walked over to his Summon to stand next to the frog. "I suggest not looking down its throat before jumping in." He warned just before Neji was about to do so.

The three young shinobi men glanced at each other one last time before jumping into the open mouth of the frog.

"You guys will never speak of this." Neji muttered a warning to the other shinobi, all of whom silently agreed.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"So this is where they were captured." Shikamaru stated, looking around the messy room.

The walls were made of smooth cement, cold and gray, devoid of furniture except for a futon accompanied by gray sheets. The kitchen was pretty much empty other than a couple snacks, the bathroom held three toothbrushes, a tube of toothpaste, and cheap body wash, shampoo and conditioner. There was a whetstone on a broken table where the missing team had probably sharpened their weapons, a hairbrush discarded onto the futon- no personal décor in the place whatsoever. In all, the room was about as cheerful as Ino on her period. Shikamaru mentally winced- that was not a pretty analogy.

"Yes." Jaraiya told him. "I had been gone for the two days to gather a few tips from my contacts. The g-….. The team was supposed to lay low for a while. But something must have gone wrong. Before I left, they had settled quite nicely into the area, mapping out the city in their heads and establishing contact with the local civilians but still keeping to themselves."

"What were they after?" Shikamaru asked.

Jaraiya rubbed his head thoughtfully. "I know they were after two things… One of them was this guy who collected information for the Akatsuki. And apparently this guy was really good, and never caught. Ever."

"Did he have a name?"

"Errr…" The Sannin racked his mind for a moment. "All I remember was that it started with a 'Z'."

Shikamaru just nodded.

Neji walked to the window and examined the broken glass, noting that not all the shards of glass were on the floor, and had either fallen out the window or had been picked up and used as weapons. He was careful not to let the rain outside touch him.

"Look." Everyone turned to Sai as he picked up a strand of black hair with a pair of tweezers, placing it in a plastic bag to be examined later. He then pointed to a barely noticeable bloody footprint, the rusty blood faded from the moisture in the atmosphere. "It looks to be about the size of a man's foot."

Jaraiya, on the other side of the room, picked up a broken hair clip, recognizing it as one of Hinata's belongings. He glanced behind him at the younger men before pocketing the delicate ivory comb. Tsunade probably had a good reason not telling those boys that it was their teammates that had been captured.

"I found another strand of hair." Shikamaru called out, and with his own pair of tweezers, held up a piece of brown hair, which was blonde at the root. Jaraiya recognized it as Ino's. Shikamaru put the strand of hair into a plastic bag.

"Weapon marks on the wall." Neji noted, staring intently at the crisscross of metal against the hard wall, where the sharp edges had either grated of glanced off. There were a couple indents that told him that someone had been stabbed, and the lack of blood told him that whoever the weapon had been aimed at had dodged.

Shikamaru looked up as Jaraiya approached him. "I assume these were part of your intel collecting?" the Nara held up a couple maps of the city, covered in small scribbles and markings that probably had to do with what the ANBU team had been after.

"Yeah." Jaraiya murmured, picking up a peculiar map that Hinata had spent a long time on, even though Jaraiya himself had no idea what she had been after.

Footsteps signaled Sai joining them, holding a small pouch filled with leaves and flowers. "This was in the corner over there," he pointed to the far corner of the room, where Sakura had brewed her poisons, "Along with many broken vials of what I would guess to be poisons."

Shikamaru's eyes flashed as he connected a couple more dots. "I see…"

The sudden clang of something very hard hitting the floor had the three shinobi turning to see Neji standing with his back to them. His posture was taut, hands in a white knuckle grip. There was a chest on the floor; Jaraiya recognized it as the chest that Hinata had kept all her papers and information from their spying.

"Is something that matter, Neji-san?" Sai asked in an emotionless voice, although his eyes held curiousity.

The Hyuuga's voice drifted over his shoulder, though he did not turn his head, instead keeping it down as whatever he was looking at. "Did you know about this?" Neji's voice was quiet, tense, and almost frightening.

"What are you talking about?" the Sannnin asked.

The Hyuuga turned around and walked over to his comrades, holding a scroll in his hands. Jaraiya recognized the scroll as the information scroll he had sent in a couple weeks ago, the one that summoned Sakura's team to meet up with him in Ame. Neji pointed to a symbol that Jaraiya remembered trying to draw with his clumsy drawing skills on the parchment.

"Do you see this?" Neji asked quietly. Shikamaru was quick to pick up on it and glanced at Neji's forehead. The Hyuuga pulled off the bandages wrapped around his forehead, revealing the caged bird symbol that branded a member of the Hyuuga branch family.

Jaraiya's looked at Neji in confusion. "But I saw that symbol on one of the Akatsuki members…"

Neji paled. "This… is a symbol of one of the Hyuuga clan's greatest enemies."

"So I'm guessing that that plus Akatsuki cannot be good." Sai said.

"No… it's not good at all." Neji frowned. "I have only heard vague rumors about this enemy. The Hyuuga clan dares not speak of this person, except in whispers. And only the older generation seems to know what exactly this threat is." The Hyuuga glanced at the symbol again. "What I do know for sure is that this symbol inspires fear in the hearts of the Hyuuga clan."

"So we are dealing with an Akatsuki member with a grudge against the Hyuuga." Shikamaru mumbled. "Or at least, this person was a part of whatever it was that the ANBU team was after."

Jaraiya scratched his chin thoughtfully, now understanding what Hinata had been staring at whenever she opened that chest. He always did wonder why she looked so pale after reading his message. And then a terrible thought occurred to him. What if this person, this enemy of the Hyuuga, was one of Hinata's captors?

"Neji." Jaraiya called. The man looked up. "What exactly would this enemy do to any member of the clan?"

The young man clenched his jaw and turned paler, if it were possible." Something along the lines of ripping out the Byakugan and forcing the Hyuuga to fight blindly."

"That's bad." Sai nodded. Jaraiya rolled his eyes at the idiot.

And then his brain processed what Neji just said. "_Oh shit._" Hinata!

All three ANBU males glanced up at Jaraiya, who looked ready to hurl. Jaraiya ignored their questions though, thinking about poor Hinata, Sakura, and Ino. Especially now that he knew Hinata was in even more danger.

"Would you just answer me-"

"Do you know about Ame torture techniques?" Jaraiya cut off Shikamaru's questioning.

The shinobi shook their heads. Jaraiya lowered his voice. "Let's just say there is a reason why, during the Third Shinobi War, a ninja **did not** want to be captured by Ame. And those that survived… Well, it was not pretty."

"I'm guessing you think they are torturing our missing operatives than." Neji stated. Jaraiya nodded.

"Isn't it a little early in the time period the operatives have been held for physical torture?" Sai asked.

Jaraiya glared at Sai in exasperation. "Did you not just hear what I said?"

Shikamaru clapped his hands to gain their attention. "From what you are telling us," he glanced at Jaraiya, "We do not have much time to rescue these ANBU."

"No shit." Jaraiya muttered.

Shikamaru looked out the window at the rain. "Then first we need to find their location."

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"Sasori."

The redhead looked up at the chair his Leader sat on. "Leader-sama?"

"We've been keeping busy lately, but I'm afraid you will be sent on one more mission." The Leader didn't sound sorry at all. Not that Sasori had anything pressing to do at the moment. The puppet master preferred to be worked to the bone, actually. It kept his mind away from a stubborn as hell, pink haired, emerald-eyed woman.

"What do you need me to do?" Sasori asked.

Pein's eyes flashed with malicious intent, and he motioned for Sasori to come closer. Without fear, Sasori stood at the edge of Pein's desk, staring down at the orange-haired man who was sitting in his chair like he owned the world. When the Leader spoke, his voice was quiet, as if he feared being overheard, and conspiring.

"I need you to kill Uchiha Sasuke." Pein said cautiously. "But you cannot allow anyone to even _think_ that this is what your mission is. Your official mission is to find suitable spies in Konoha for you to implant that jutsu of yours that will control their minds."

"It has a name you know." Sasori muttered.

Pein waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah, that's great. Just get to work right away."

Sasori narrowed his eyes. "As much as I'll enjoy killing the Uchiha brat, _Leader-sama_, why do you _really_ want the Uchiha dead?"

Pein glared at Sasori. In return, the redhead just smirked. "I'm one of the original members of this organization, Pein. I've figured out a couple things." The Leader's glare flashed with respect for a moment.

"I'm preventing that bastard Madara from gaining any more power than he needs." Pain hissed. "There can be only one god in charge at a time. And he is past his prime. It is **my** turn to rule."

Sasori smirked. "Between you and me, Pein-sama, I prefer you." And with that, the puppeteer walked out of the room. His mind whirled as he planned his revenge against the Uchiha.

'_And if that brat makes so much as one move on Sakura… I will tear him apart.'_ Sasori didn't consider himself the jealous type. But he had seen the look in Sasuke's eyes when that bastard had glimpsed Sakura. And **no one**, let alone a damned Uchiha brat, was taking Sakura from him.

Death had already come between them once.

Sasori entered his room and unlocked several drawers, pulling out scrolls filled with puppets he had made, old and new. The older scrolls were ones he had created for profit- after all, Akasuna No Sasori's puppets were legendary and had made him quiet the fortune as a young rogue ninja. The newer ones were created from human- though none as worthy of his eternal art than the Third Kazekage had been. Sasori again mourned the loss of such exquisite art.

Okay, that's not what he was really mourning.

"Damn…" Sasori closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, trying and failing to push away the thoughts of Sakura. "I loved her…" he murmured. The thought of him, Akasuna No Sasori, in love, was still foreign to him. To say it out loud was like a slap in the face!

Sasori ran his hand through his hair and returned to packing for his mission, checking his puppets for flaws, coating his weapons in the poison Sakura never had the time to create an antidote for… _'Dammit STOP THINKING OF HER!' _He mentally screamed. Thoughts of her, of their separation, that she thought he was dead, pained him. She thought he was dead, and he hadn't been able to find her! Where the hell had Konoha sent her?!

Growling at his circling, endless thoughts that led nowhere, Sasori grabbed his cloak, hat, and pack. Storming out of his room, he started to put on his attire, focusing on his poison formula to keep his thoughts away from Sakura.

Several screams ripped through the corridor that led to the Ame prison. Sasori stopped and stared down the hall, an ominous shiver crawling slowly up his skin, raising the hair on his arms and neck. Why did the scream sound familiar?

A different scream screeched through the hall again, and Sasori mentally scolded himself. It was just because he was thinking of Sakura. He shrugged on his cloak and continued his way to the street level of the building, placing his straw hat onto his head as he exited the building into the rain-filled streets of Ame, heading to the village exit.

He ignored the screams that echoed in his ears.

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><p><strong>I'm evil. I know. Muwahaha.<strong>

**Sorry its short. But I wanted to get something done this spring, and I just realized that with the passing of EASTER! (happy Easter everyone!) spring is kinda slipping by. **

**Read & Review!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Hey readers! Hopefully this chapter is more action-y than the last filler chapters. I truly apologize to all my readers, my inspiration for this story has been lacking of late, and the last chapter or two sucked. You don't deserve such terrible writing. Quite honestly, I don't know how any of you can read this story in the first place, although I'll admit it has had its moments of glory. I guess it's just cause this was my first story and I feel like my writing has gotten better and, looking back, I can see all my mistakes. (Quite honestly I don't care for this story…)**

**WOW! Over 100 reviews? I never dared to dream that this story would get this much! I feel all warm and fuzzy inside~ ^_^**

**WARNING: I'd like to remind everyone that this story is rated M.**

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO.**

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><p><em>Chapter Twenty: Torture<em>

They dragged the bleeding body of Ino back into the cell. Though they fought to keep their faces straight, both Hinata's and Sakura's eyes flashed in fear, but most of all, rage. Ino was unconscious, a blessing itself. Sakura's hands itched to heal the numerous wounds on Ino's body, her mind already noting the wounds she saw and what else the Akatsuki had probably done to Ino. The worst part was that all three kunoichi knew that the Akatsuki had only just begun, and this was merely a taste of what the criminal organization had in store for them.

The man who had dragged Ino's body in, threw it unceremoniously onto the hard-as-a-rock cot to the side of the cell; the kunoichi would be chained back to the cement soon enough. Hinata and Sakura glared daggers at the mistreatment of Ino's injured body. The man, a shinobi of Ame by the hitai-ate on his forehead, merely gave them a sneer before walking over to where Sakura hung from the wall, chained by her wrists.

"The Akatsuki will see you now." He sneered, an unflattering combination of a smirk and a grimace twisting his features. Not that he was much a looker in the first place.

Sakura's arms burned, and silent tears slid down her carefully emotionless face as the Ame shinobi unchained her arms from the wall. Her legs wobbled as they hit the floor, and she nearly fell to her knees. The feeling of blood rushing back into her arms was agony, and she bit her lip hard to keep herself from whimpering. The man shoved her forward, locking her arms behind her back with heavy chains that constantly sucked out her chakra. With trembling muscles, Sakura began to slowly walk forward, licking her parched lips as her breathing became labored.

She walked into the torture room for the second room, avoiding the hungry gaze of Zetsu as her tormentor studied her weak frame. There were two other Ame nin in the room, watching her with one part bloodlust and one part madness. The Ame shinobi behind her walked her over to the stainless steel table sitting in the middle of the room, the surface already wiped clean from its previous inhabitant.

Who Sakura knew had been Ino.

Fresh blood still spattered the white tiled floor around the area. The smell permeated the air, worse than any hospital Sakura had ever been to, and for the second time in her life-yet in the same room- she nearly vomited at the smell of blood.

The sudden force of the Ame ninja slammed Sakura into the steel table, dazing her just long enough for the Ame shinobi, with the help of his comrades, cuff Sakura to the table. She stared at the ceiling for a good minute before she came back to herself, baring her teeth menacingly at the Ame ninja still looming over her.

"It is good to see you again, kunoichi." Zetsu's voice cut through the tense, heavy silence. It made the hairs rise on her body, her instincts screaming at her flee from the predator. His voice was disturbing, ringing in her ears with the harmony of his two voices. **"Your fear is delicious. But I will assure you that I won't bite…. Much."**

Instantly Sakura's mind turned to the throbbing pain on her right shoulder where Zetsu had taken a bite out of her in the previous torture session. Sakura glared and spat at him.

Instantly the bi-colored man stabbed Sakura in the thigh with something she was unable to see form her position. Sakura cried out in pain. Then Zetsu twisted whatever it was, and Sakura felt shredded metal grinding her flesh. This time, she gave a shrill scream of agony. Breathing deep, controlling breaths, she glared at Zetsu.

"Still so much spirit." The pale half of Zetsu spoke before his face split into a maniacal grin as the darker half continued, **"I wonder if you are as beautiful broken as you are when you are whole."**

'_I do believe we were just complimented by a mad, sadistic, psychotic, bipolar son of a bitch.' Inner Sakura noted, her voice oddly subdued._

It was the first time Inner Sakura had commented since Sasori's death, Sakura noted absently. Zetsu yanked out whatever he had stabbed Sakura's thigh, making her whimper loudly in pain. With it in hand, he walked over to the cart with the rest of the torture devices against the wall, placing the bloodied piece of metal on it. Zetsu returned to the steel table she was chained to, grinning down at her as he loomed above. The black half of Zetsu licked his lips hungrily, already relishing in Sakura's wonderful cries of pain.

"This time, however," Zetsu said as he glanced up to look at a shadowy figure standing in a dark corner of the room, "I will not be the one asking the questions. **Pray for mercy, pink bitch."**

The dark figure stepped out of the shadows, revealing a masked man with a dark hood obscuring the details of his mask. Instantly a wave of powerful, nauseating chakra engulfed Sakura, making her choke on the raw evil in it. A sinister chuckle escaped from behind the mask at her reaction. Sakura's instincts were going haywire, screaming at her to flee, to hide, to run far away and never look back. She clenched her teeth in determination, not bother to hide the terror in her eyes.

And when the figure spoke, his voice was rich, dark, and hypnotizing, slippery like oil.

"So you are the girl that turned my organization to mush."

Sakura's entire body froze. The leader of the Akatsuki?

"Yes, I am the leader of the Akatsuki." The man's voice was amused as he read the thoughts crossing Sakura's face. "Not the idiotic figurehead that believes he could ever actually stand up to me."

This must have been some inside joke of theirs, because at those words the masked figure and Zetsu began to laugh menacingly.

Suddenly a cold hand was tracing her jawline, making Sakura flinch at the cruelly affectionate gesture. He had no right! She glared at the Akatsuki leader's hand, making him chuckle.

"I don't see anything particularly special about you." He said offhandedly. "You are pretty, I guess. Certainly a unique color of hair. And I guess your green eyes are interesting enough. But you are no real beauty. What about you could have possibly blinded my pawns so?"

Sakura gritted her teeth, her eyes flashing in anger.

"Ah, that look." The man said as if it explained everything. "Maybe that was it. That wild fire in your eyes, the aura of being untamable. Many men like that, or so I hear."

The Akatsuki leader attempted to stroke Sakura's face again, but she jerked away from it. He harshly grabbed her jaw and smacked her across the face for her insubordination.

"I knew a woman, once. She was very much like you. Strong-willed, independent, intelligent. She was capable of great things. And she was very beautiful." The man behind the mask sighed, exaggerating the sadness in his voice to the point of mockery. "It was a shame she had to be put down."

' "_Put down"?!' Inner Sakura raged. 'Women aren't animals you twit!'_

Sakura mentally agreed with her Inner self.

The masked face was suddenly hovering inches from Sakura's face. "Now we wouldn't want to have to do the same to you, now do we? So why don't you just cooperate and tell me what I want to know. And maybe I'll even reward you by letting you glimpse your precious Sasori-_kun_."

Sakura felt the entire world freeze. Her eyes widened, her lips parting just slightly in shock at what this man was implying. The impossibility of it made her logical half yell at her that it was a trick. Yet her heart couldn't help but hope that somehow, the Akatsuki leader wasn't lying.

"B-But… Sasori… is…" _Dead. _ She couldn't force the last word past her lips. Her heart clenched, as just saying the thought aloud caused reality to seem so painful. Sakura closed her eyes in sadness and forced herself to speak. "Sasori is dead."

The mask leaned closer, making her shiver in revulsion at the close proximity of the man's evil chakra and the eerily charming voice that whispered, "No my dear girl, he is quite alive, I assure you."

Sakura's eyes snapped open and stared at the ceiling in shock. She fought to keep herself from believing his words, _his lies_, but she couldn't help the small ounce of hope that bloomed in her chest at the thought. Her heart clenched, knowing that this man was lying to her to get her to give up information. They were cruel, cruel lies.

"You are lying." Her whispers sounded hopeful, not as forceful as she had intended.

He laughed mercilessly. "Quite the contrary. He walked out of this very building just a couple minutes ago."

"NO!" Sakura snarled. "You are lying, you bastard!" _Please be lying…_

The masked Akatsuki leader turned to Zetsu. "Did you not see him leave on his mission just a few moments ago?"

Zetsu grinned. "I did. And I do believe he even heard her screaming before he walked out."

Sakura refused to believe her ears. Sasori knew what her screams sounded like! There was no way he could have heard them without recognizing her screams! Besides, he was dead! She had seen his body fall to the ground herself! She had poured her own chakra into the gaping holes in his body, trying to heal what she knew to be fatal!

"_**SASORI!"**_ ….._**"C-come back S-Sasori…" she pleaded. "D-don't l-leave me…"**_

Sakura closed her eyes at the memory of that day. Every day, every night, every waking hour, every goddamn minute she was plagued at the thought of his death! She tasted blood in her mouth and relinquished her lower lip from when she had unconsciously bitten it.

The masked Akatsuki leader smirked behind his mask. "Oh come now, my girl. You are a medical ninja, are you not? The one who turned Sasori back into a human? I must commend you on that feat, by the way."

Sakura forced the tears back, refusing to allow anyone to see them. She only opened her eyes to glare at the Akatsuki leader after she was sure her eyes wouldn't look glassy.

"Surely, as a medical ninja, you realize that there are ways to bring the dead back to life?" The Akatuki leader asked her.

Sakura's mouth thinned into a line.

"I tried." He sighed, shrugging. "Zetsu, please punish this foolish child for turning my psychotic killers into lovesick puppies." He spat out the last words.

In the blink of an eye the shadowy figure had teleported out of the room, making Sakura gasp as the oppressive chakra of the Akatsuki leader suddenly vanished. She let out a breathe, thankful that the terrifying figure had left. That is, until she felt something cut open her side, between the ribs.

Sakura gritted her teeth, eyes flashing open to see Zetsu grinning down at her, his scalpel cutting just shallow enough into her side that she wasn't in any medical danger, but in the most pain.

"**Time to scream, pretty bitch."** Zetsu smacked his lips.

Sakura's screams echoed down the hall to where Hinata silently cried for her teammate.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Hinata stayed silent, when Zetsu came in and threw Sakura's unconscious body on the same cot Ino's had been. Now Ino's still unconscious form hung from the shackles on the wall next to Hinata. Her tears long dried on her grimy face, hidden by dirt and blood, Hinata only winced when Zetsu unchained her arms from the wall and her numb arms lit on fire.

The Akatsuki member practically hauled Hinata up and threw her at the doorway. She caught herself on the doorway, but he was already grabbing her arms and twisting them behind her back, forcing her to stumble unevenly towards the torture room. Hinata's face was impassive, already mentally prepared for what was to come.

Entering the room, her mind clouded over in blind rage for a moment at the sight of blood coating the floor, and on the steel table, a speck of blood- _Sakura's blood_- had escaped Zetsu's quick wipe-down of the place. It took all of Hinata's control to not gag at the overpowering smell of blood that seemed to weigh heavily in the air.

Zetsu picked up her weak body and dropped it on the table, making Hinata give a squeak of indignation. He ignored her, strapping her to the table.

"Have fun with her, Konan." Zetsu said, turning to the woman entering the room at that moment, his dark side giving the blue-haired Akatsuki member a malicious grin. **"Try not to kill you dear little cousin."**

The woman in question snorted but said nothing other than order Zetsu to leave the room with one look of her eyes.

Hinata's entire body tensed as her eyes grew large. Her mind raced as she realized the one she had feared was indeed part of the Akatsuki. The reality of it crashed down on her; she had feared this.

"K-Konan…" she whispered fearfully.

The Akatsuki woman walked up to the table Hinata was strapped on, looking down at her. "So you do remember me."

At the sound of Konan's voice, Hinata squeaked. Hinata's eyes continued to stare up at Konan, the size of saucers, and Konan studied Hinata just as much. The Hyuuga heiress had grown since the last time they had met. Konan's eyes flickered over the familiar bone structure, slightly rounder than her own. Hinata's long hair was splayed out, the same dark shade of blue as Konan's.

Hinata felt the color drain from her face as Konan allowed the brown henge fade from her face, and the heiress found herself staring up into the same cream-colored eyes as herself. Konan's forehead now showed a scar cut across the mangled image of the Hyuuga-branch family Juinjutsu. Here was the Hyuuga traitor none dared speak of.

Suddenly Hinata was thrashing in her bonds, desperately trying to escape the Akatsuki woman. Konan's eyes flickered in disdain. "It's no use."

Still, blind fear caused Hinata to continue to fight for her freedom, knowing Konan was ruthless, and especially hated the main branch family. Konan's stoic face broke into a sneer.

"Hinata-sama," she gave a mocking bow. "I am surprised to see you wearing that uniform. ANBU? They must have made a mistake. Is Konoha that desperate for ANBU? Have they grown so weak that they would let such a coward into their top ranks? Or did you cut a deal with someone to gain approval from your bastard of a father?"

The words were sharp, hitting every insecurity Hinata ever had.

Konan let out a bark of bitter laughter. "You were always such a weakling, such a coward. You shamed the Hyuuga name, and embarrassed your lineage. Any of this ring a bell?"

Hinata's face was turning red with shame.

"Yes, you should be ashamed of yourself. You never deserved to be born into the main branch." Konan's arm snapped out and gripped Hinata's chin, hurting the girl's neck as Konan jerked Hinata's face up. "Your sister- what was her name? Hana… Hani… Well, it doesn't matter. She was always the daughter your father wanted, no? The perfect heiress. Hiashi wished that you weren't born first. He _hated_ you. _Hated his own daughter._"

Hinata closed her eyes as tears burned behind them. "Y-You're wrong…" she whispered.

"No, I am not. Did he even cry at your mother's funeral?" Hinata didn't answer. Konan leaned in to smirk down at her. "No, he didn't, did he?"

Hinata shook her head vigorously. "Shut up!" her voice rose higher as she lost control, until it was almost squeaky. "Y-You don't know a-anything!"

"But I do." Konan's hand slammed Hinata's head back into the steel of the table. "Still so weak. So emotionally vulnerable. Is this any away to act for a Hyuuga?" She let out a bitter laugh.

"Main branch trash." She spat, saliva hitting Hinata's cheek, causing the girl to flinch. "I bet you had to bargain your way to get into ANBU." Konan's hand suddenly groped Hinata's breast, harshly, without mercy. Hinata cried out in pain and embarrassment.

"Did you use these?" Konan whispered with venom, smiling cruelly. "My, my, what would your father think if he knew his daughter had become a _slut_? Even worse, what would your precious clan think if they knew their future clan leader was no better than a common _whore_?"

"N-No! S-Stop it!" Hinata cried as tears slid down her cheeks and into her hair. "I a-am strong!"

Konan released Hinata with an amused laugh. "Yeah right. You? The embarrassment of the clan? Imagine how they felt when they saw how you shied away from sparring practice. When you cried when you cut yourself on a kunai. Oh the shame."

Hinata knew Konan hadn't actually been there to see all these things. But Konan had seen enough of Hinata when she had been an extremely young girl, and already showing signs of her passive and shy personality, much to the disappointment of her father. She was only re-opening all of Hinata's vulnerabilities.

Her composure gone, Hinata tried to tell herself Konan was only playing mind games with her, but dammit, they were working. Hinata would have preferred Zetsu's knives and scalpels to this kind of torture.

Konan grinned at the Hyuuga heiress' loss of control. "I'm not even done yet." She smirked and took out a kunai and began cutting off Hinata's clothes.

When Hinata protested, Konan slammed the butt of her kunai on Hinata's forehead. Hinata went still for a long moment, dazed. This seemed to give Konan an idea as she paused in cutting off Hinata's pants and walked up to the head of the table. An evil grin lit her face.

"I will enjoy this very much!" Konan laughed with maniacal glee, sending shivers down Hinata's body. And when Hinata felt the cold blade of the kunai on her forehead, she knew exactly what Konan was going to do.

"NO!" she shouted, but Konan held her head in an iron lock. "Please! You don't understand-"

In a second, Konan had pulled away the kunai and smacked Hinata in the mouth. "Embarrassed to wear the brand of your inferiors, Main Branch slut?" she asked before returning to the carving in Hinata's forehead.

"P-Please!" Hinata cried. "Things have changed! The Main and Branch families have made p-peace!" –Hinata gasped as Konan dug the kunai deeper at her words.

"LIAR!" Konan accused. "Such despicable lies from a Main Branch slut! The two halves will never make peace for what you Main Branch bastards do to us! You're just trying to save your own skin!"

Konan smirked. "That pretty skin of yours won't be for much longer."

Hinata gave a whimper. "N-No!" –Konan smacked her again, but she still tried to reason with her- "Please! My father, Hiashi, he is really trying to make amends with the Branch family! He even took Neji under his wing! You remember Neji?"

Konan sliced deeper into Hinata's forehead, causing the girl to scream. She leaned closer, whispering again, "_Lying whore."_

Hinata sobbed.

Finally Konan drew away and returned to cutting off Hinata's pants, until the Hyuuga heiress was lying completely naked on the cold table.

"Let's see where your pride is after this." Konan laughed, and called a bunch of Ame shinobi into the room.

Hinata felt herself burn with embarrassment and shame, and struggled at her cuffs to cover her body. These shinobi did not look like the honorable type, and eyed her body with sickening leers. Hinata sobbed again.

"You are only allowed to look at her." Konan told them, and many of the ninja's faces scowled as ifthe Akatsuki woman had taken away their candy.

"Then what's the point?" one of them whined, eyeing Hinata's bare breasts.

Hinata wanted to glare at him, but the overwhelming sense of anger and embarrassment prevented her from anything other than pure mortification. A different shinobi, with lightning speed, grabbed her thigh, smoothing his hand up it until his gripped her hip, a disgusting smirk on his face.

At that, she lost herself to the rage that had been building. Hinata cussed at him with all that she had learned from Ino and Sakura, her voice shrill. "YOU SICK MOTHERFUCKERS, GET YOUR SLIMY HANDS OFF OF ME! Go find a tree to fuck if you're that desperate you swine! Stop eyeing me like a piece of meat, you sons-of-bitches! I swear I will cut off your dicks when I get out of here!"

In surprise, the men drew away.

"I told you idiots not to touch her." Konan clucked. "_That_ punishment is for another day." She laughed cruelly at Hinata's indignant cry. "Now leave, before I decide to punish you all for not listening to my orders."

The Ame shinobi exited the room. Hinata felt like the dirty whore Konan called her as the men looked over her naked form before they left. Konan shut the door behind them.

"Why?" Hinata sobbed when Konan approached her again. "Why are you doing this to me? Please…"

"Because you are a Main branch whore." Konan answered and smiled evilly, glancing at Hinata's alabaster skin that so many women in Konoha had envied. "Such pretty skin. Isn't it strange that a kunoichi should have such unmarked skin? Let me correct that."

The light of the room glinted off of the kunai as Konan began to cut up Hinata's body. The heiress' screams echoed down the hallway, rising in pitch with every downward slice of the kunai.

Hinata panted on the stainless steel table, now tainted red. Although she could focus her chakra as well as Sakura, Hinata tried to imitate the healing techniques her Byakugan had picked up on. What she wouldn't give to be able to replicate Sakura's super strength right now!

Konan's cream eyes narrowed. "Byakugan!" the Akatsuki woman hissed, and the veins around her eyes bulged, revealing her hidden lineage.

"Oh no you don't." Konan spat as her Byakugan caught Hinata in the act of healing herself. With a few quick jabs, the Akatsuki member cut off Hinata's chakra paths. Turning, Konan called, "Zetsu! Get your bi-colored ass in here!"

Within a minute Zetsu floated up from the floor, scowling at Konan. "I do believe the different colors of my butt cheeks are of no concern to you."

Konan rolled her eyes. "How can I resist?"

Zetsu's scowl deepened. **"Blue-haired bitch."**

Then there was a shocked pause as Zetsu stared at Konan's Byakugan. "Well, it has been a long time since I saw _that_."

Konan's face became impassive as she replaced the henge that hid her pupiless eyes and scarred forehead. "Indeed. Now, take this slut back to the cell. She is still conscious, but the medics shouldn't worry about her hurting them."

Hinata whimpered as Zetsu eyed her nakedness with eerily hungry eyes.

"She is too weak to present any threat." Konan continued. "_she has always been too weak._"

Hinata squeezed her eyes shut, trying to ignore Konan and her own nakedness. Zetsu watched Konan curiously as the Akatsuki woman left the room, turning back to Hinata with the same curious gaze. While his dark half wanted to eat the Hyuuga girl (her blood was making his stomach growl) his white half wanted to know what the connection was between Konan and this Konoha kunoichi. No one in the Akatsuki knew much about Konan.

Hinata flinched as the bi-colored Akatsuki member picked up her naked body and began to carry her shivering form down the hallway. She was surprised and thankful that Zetsu didn't pay any attention to her nakedness as he carried her. She glanced warily up and down the hall, praying that they passed no one. Thankfully, the halls were empty.

He spoke only after he had re-chained her to the walls. Hinata was too weak to put up any resistance, and her eyes were already weighing heavily as the emotional exhaustion took its toll.

"So, Konan is from Konoha?" Zetsu asked her.

Hinata could only nod her head, before she slipped into unconsciousness.

Zetsu stared at the blood for a moment, licking his lips in indecisiveness.

"We have work to to."

"**Just one bite?"**

"No. We will get in trouble with the leader. And Konan."

"**She's such a bitch."**

Zetsu, settling the argument with himself, left the room, ignoring the rat that scurried past him as he locked the iron door of the cell behind him.

The rat sniffed around the room, lapping up blood from the puddle underneath Hinata. It sniffed around some more, attempting to find a way to find a piece of their clothing. A glint caught its eyes, and it turned to the cot on the side of the small cell. Pink and blonde strands of hair shone in the dim light. The rat quickly took one of each color and darted out of the room, back to its master.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Something scampered into the room, catching Sais's eye. He smiled. "Looks like one of my rats found something."

Instantly the other shinobi were crowding around the artist as Sai pulled out a blank scroll and laid it on the ground. The ink rat approached and coughed up two hairs, one pink, one blonde.

"No doubt about who's the pink strand belongs to." Jaraiya murmured. "I don't know anyone else with that color hair."

"Why didn't you tell us who the missing operatives were in the first place?" Neji glared at Jaraiya.

Jaraiya crossed his arms defensively. "Well obviously Tsunade wanted to keep it a secret from you."

Shikamaru scoffed. "If she thought we wouldn't figure it out, she severely underestimated us."

Sai shushed everyone as the rat began to do something curious. It didn't melt into the parchment first thing, like it was supposed to. Instead, the creature began to cough and hack up a diferent substance other than ink onto the paper, the liquid stained darker from its ink body, but red nonetheless. The four shinobi stared.

"Blood." Sai whispered. "Was it the pink haired girl?" he asked the creature.

It shook its head.

"Blonde?" Shikamaru asked, his gut twisting.

Again, the rat shook its head.

Neji frowned. "Blue haired girl?"

… the rat nodded.

Neji closed his eyes in defeat. "Hinata-chan…" he whispered.

Sai narrowed his eyes and pointed to the parchment. This time the rat melted into the scroll, giving them a map to where the girls were being held captive.

"We need to hurry." Neji muttered, anger quickly replacing his worry for Hinata. "They are injured, and no doubt being tortured."

Shikamaru chewed his cigarette anxiously. "I have a plan."

* * *

><p><strong>Whew! I'm so glad that this story is getting back on track. My attempts at humor failed me, and I don't know if this story will continue to be as funny as it was in the beginning chapters. It's changed so much since this idea first popped into my head. Can you believe the end is near? (of this story, I mean, not my fanfics)<strong>

**Regarding Konan: I did not intend for any of Konan's actions to seem lesbian or hentai. She was merely stripping Hinata of her pride, trying to shame the heir of the Main Branch. Yes, I realize Konan is not a Hyuuga in the real Naruto story, but this is fanfiction. **

**I actually had fun writing this. I felt like I was writing a hell of a lot better than the chapters before this. Not that I enjoyed torturing my favorite characters. I just loved the challenge, you know? Read and Review!**

**~Lilithia**


	21. Chapter 21

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO**

**I'm back! Aren't you all so happy? I am! Summer is off to a great start for me! And I wrote most of this chapter under the heavenly influence of Florence + The Machine (which I don't own either). Florence + The Machine playlist is, like, beyond awesome. Insane. Inspiring. I particularly love the songs about devils, coffins, and drowning (they are actually a lot better than it sounds… Anyway!)**

**I'm getting distracted. Whoops. Special thanks to ****howlingwindofthestorm**** because I FINALLY GOT A BETA! Unfortunately for my Beta, this happens to have the least grammar mistakes of all chapters I've written… Fate is weird, no?**

**Warning, long flashback ahead!**

* * *

><p><em>Chapter Twenty-One: Remember the Rain<em>

"Deidara." Sasori growled.

The blonde Akatsuki member jumped, looking up embarrassed from the back of their group where he had lagged behind. "Sasori-danna! Y-You're… Uh, pretend you didn't just see that!"

"I already knew you were in love with yourself, narcissist." Sasori scoffed, not the least bit perturbed in Deidara's hands licking each other. **(A/N: Whoa, never thought you'd hear that phrase O.o) **"Pick up your feet, brat, you're slowing us down."

Deidara sputtered indignantly. "My hands were eating _clay_ and you just happened to glance back when they ate the last piece!"

Sasori smirked. "I bet there's another place those hand play as well huh? With a sock maybe?"

Walking beside them, Hidan let out a guffaw of laughter. Sasori's partner turned an interesting shade of red. "S-Sasoriiiiii!"

Sasori's smirk grew.

"Would you both shut up?" Kakuzu grumbled. "For once let me have peace…"

Sasori gave the money-monger a dry look. "Kakuzu-san, you have _Hidan_ for a partner. He is not about to rest in peace, and as your immortal partner, I highly doubt he has any intention of allowing _you_ any peace unless _you_ are _resting in peace._"

"Damn straight!" Hidan crowed, and suddenly found his mouth tied shut with Kakuzu's strings. The Jashinist muttered incoherent curses as blood ran down his chin.

Kakuzu walked on without a care in the world. "Konoha is about twenty miles away. We should disguise ourselves now. Itachi and Kisame are still finishing up their last job for Pein in Mist, so they will not be able to meet us there."

"Oooh we finished before that oh-so-perfect Uchiha?" Deidara asked, and he and Hidan smirked at the same time, giving each other high-fives.

'Honestly, and they wonder why the rest of the Akatsuki members give them no respect at all.' Sasori rolled his eyes at the irksome actions of Deidara and Hidan. "Immature brats…"

"So it would seem." Kakuzu agreed, and two large tentacles of string slid out from Kakuzu's body and began to sneak up behind Deidara and Hidan. The blonde artist and the Jashinist were busy counting the ways of why Uchiha Itachi was an arrogant prick (in their eyes at least), when the two Akatsuki members found their heads being smacked together by Kakuzu's threads.

"What the hell was that for you fucking miser!" Hidan screeched at Kakuzu indignantly.

Hidan and Deidara turned to glare at their respective partners, only to realize that they had forgotten to heed Kakuzu's suggestion. Kakuzu was henged to look like a tall, broad young man with spiky jet black hair, tan skin, and dressed in a sleeveless vest and loose shinobi pants, a red scarf covering the lower half of his face (all three secretly wondered if this was how Kakuzu had looked as a young man back when the dinosaurs still roamed the earth). Sasori's henge was relatively simple: merely changing his dark red hair color to a nondescript chocolate brown turned him into a completely different person.

Deidara surveyed his partner with controlled surprise, all the while going through the hand signs to henge himself. The air around Deidara shimmered for a moment, and in the blink of an eye, Deidara's bright blue eyes had been dulled to pale blue, nearly gray, and his hair darkened to a pale brown. Deidara stared distastefully at his new hair color, already missing his normally obnoxious blonde hair, his one vanity. With a disdainful sniff, he swept his long strands into a high ponytail, allowing his bangs to fall over the left half of his face.

"What's the point of this? If I have to kill a goddamn fucking heathen, I want him to see my true face! This is cowardly! There's no way I'm going to fucking- Mrrrrmphmph!" Hidan's hands went to his mouth, tugging at Kakuzu's strings.

"You must really enjoy abusing your partner." Sasori commented casually.

Kakuzu grunted. "The only reason why I'm not ripping him to pieces is because if I did, I would be tempted to throw his limbs in random directions, and putting the idiot back together would waste time, which in turn would waste money. Time is money."

At this Hidan screamed a gurgled reply that sounded something like 'Fuck you Kakuzu', but it only served to further invoke his partner's ire, and a small tentacle of string shoved its way down Hidan's throat. The unusual sight of a smile on Kakuzu's henged face was enough to give Deidara shivers. Kakuzu enjoyed torturing Hidan way too much.

"Just disguise yourself already." Sasori sighed, walking past the choking Hidan without a second thought.

Ten minutes later, and the Akatsuki members were all in disguise and already covering good distance to Konoha. Hidan, henged with black hair pulled into a short stub of a ponytail and his eyes changed into a dark brown. All four had turned their cloaks inside out so that the red clouds were concealed, and they hadn't even bothered to bring their tell-tale straw hats.

Every five seconds Hidan would throw a silent hissy fit, interspersed with 'Hrmphs!' and 'Ffffckuuus!" as he tried to tear Kakuzu's stubborn threads from his lips, only to give up for another five seconds, glaring at his partner's relaxed back before stomping his feet and screeching in the back of his throat. Much to the never ending amusement of not only Kakuzu, but Deidara and Sasori as well.

"Chakra signatures." Sasori whispered.

Immediately the dirt road they had been following was empty as the S-class criminals hid in the nearby foliage. Sasori's quick fawn eyes flickered from tree to tree, searching for the faintest disturbance. The forest was quiet without their conversation, interrupted only by the occasional bird call. A breeze dusted on Sasori's cheek, causing soft rustles in the bright green leaves, and for a moment, as the sun shone through the green pigments, the bright emerald colors reminded him of Sakura's eyes.

Beautiful, beautiful, enthralling, rapturing pools of emerald…

Sasori shut his eyes and took a deep calming breath as a sense of foreboding overtook him. Shaking away the displeasing feelings, he extended his chakra network, his precise control keeping the approaching Leaf shinobi team from detecting him. There was a slight shift in the air beside him, and Sasori opened his eyes to look at Deidara.

"One border patrol team returning from duty. Konoha. Four members. Jounin class." Sasori told him in as little words possible.

"Do we-"

"No." Sasori shook his head at Deidara's unfinished question, meeting Kakuzu's gaze on the other side of the dirt road hidden in the foliage. "We are not here to pick a fight. Conceal yourself until they pass us."

Kakuzu, reading Sasori's lips, nodded and dragged a protesting Hidan farther into the forest. In a couple minutes the border patrol appeared, and ran past their location without a glance in their direction. The group waited another few minutes before emerging from their hiding places, Kakuzu pulling an angry Hidan behind him, the Jashinist no doubt fuming that he was not allowed to fight the Konoha shinobi. In a mutual agreement (disregarding Hidan's protests behind sewn lips) the Akatsuki members agreed to keep silent as they neared Konohagakure.

Six and a half miles from the hidden village, they came to a crossroads. Sasori and Deidara nodded to Hidan and Kakuzu before continuing straight, heading towards Konoha. Kakuzu and Hidan turned left, to travel another couple miles east to hunt down a missing-nin from Lightning that was hiding in Fire country (which, Hidan had told the pair of artists the previous day, Kakuzu had nearly started drooling when he saw the bounty on the shinobi's head).

Sasori and Deidara left the road when they were less than five miles from the village, already nervous about the amount of chakra signatures flitting in and out of the village, all too close for comfort. They continued toward the village from a more densely forested angle, suppressing their chakra and moving carefully, watching for any kind of detection traps. At one point they had to freeze and conceal their scents with a particularly handy genjutsu as a member of the Inuzuka clan walked by with his canine partner and teammates; a border patrol team heading out from the look of their uniforms. The dog paused to sniff the air warily, taking a defensive stance and glaring around the trees until it decided the odd feeling of being watched was a mere false alarm.

Sasori gave Deidara a superior look when Deidara released a long breath he had been holding. In silent banter, Sasori lifted an eyebrow at his disguised partner, smirking when Deidara glared back at him. Sasori shrugged and turned away, nearly snickering at the pout on Deidara's face, which, despite Deidara's brown hair and pale blue-gray eyes, was still as familiar to Sasori as the back of his hand.

At this thought, Sasori mentally slapped himself twice and smashed his head against an imaginary wall. 'The fuck?' he thought. 'Do _not_ tell me I just thought-' he shuddered '-_fondly_ of the brat!' Sasori mentally slapped himself again. 'Kami, I need Sakura back before I go soft.' Yet again, the thought of Sakura left a bitter taste in his mouth, and for some odd reason, Sasori's mind recalled the haunting scream that had echoed down the hallway as he had left the Akatsuki headquarters in Rain the previous day before transporting to the Fire border.

His thoughts were interrupted as Deidara nudged his shoulder. "The walls of Konoha are in sight." Deidara told him. "What do we do now?"

Sasori's gaze alighted on the setting sun, casting bright rays through the buildings of the village. Smaller shadows of traveling shinobi hopped form rooftop to rooftop, and Sasori's shinobi hearing picked up the far away murmur of voices, people talking and laughing within the haven of their village. In an uncharacteristic moment of nostalgia, Sasori was transported back to his childhood in Suna, in his adolescent escapades to the civilian markets, just so he could watch the people, to see what true happiness and family was supposed to be.

What would it be like, to live in a place like that? To walk into market with Sakura on his arm, completely relaxed and not fearing the future of their relationship? To be allowed to hold her, without their loyalties keeping their hearts separated?

"Uh, earth to Danna?" Deidara waved his hand in front of Sasori's face.

Without looking at Deidara, Sasori answered, "We wait until nightfall. My puppet will meet us at a location just past the southern gate."

Deidara smirked. "You know, if it weren't for the whole 'kill-on-sight' order, I'd be tempted to show these Leaf weaklings just how easy it is for an S-class criminal to get through their security. Just to laugh at the looks on their faces. Maybe we should have a tea party on the roof of their precious Hokage tower." He threw his head back and laughed.

Sasori resisted the urge to chuckle. He could only imagine the look on the Godaime's face as her ANBU officers have heart attacks. From what Sakura described of her mentor, the formidable woman would probably be so pissed off that she might just demolish the Hokage tower. Unless the sight of two Akatsuki members having tea on the tower roof causes the elderly Council members to die from shock. Then the Hokage might just thank them profusely and offer them her best sake.

"Maybe someday, Deidara." Sasori told him in an amused voice.

Deidara flashed Sasori his signature grin.

"Now get ready to enter the village." Sasori's gaze snapped to the southern entrance. "My spy has awakened and is making his way to the gate."

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

_Flashback_

"_You need to be more careful, Ino." Hinata admonished as she stood by the window, watching the deceptively innocent looking raindrops tap the windowpane._

"_Relax, Hinata." Ino waved her hand. "I have that man eating out of the palm of my hand. And you know very well that I am careful."_

_There was a pause in the conversation as Hinata eyed a squad of Ame shinobi as they rain across the roof of the building across from their window. After closing the blinds she spoke. "One can never be too careful, especially when courting the enemy."_

"_You're so old-fashioned, Hinata." Ino rolled her eyes._

_Hinata's own eyes narrowed in disapproval. "Ino, don't you think it's just a little too convenient that you just __**happened**__ to catch some random Ame nin's fancy?"_

_Stroking her reddish-brown pigtails in thought, Ino quickly snatched her hand away and scowled at the light dusting of red on her fingers, wiping the hair dye on her breeches. "Well you have to admit that I tend to attract man from all places, no?"_

"_Ino…" Hinata growled._

_Throwing her hands in the air, Ino stood and began muttering about how unappreciated she is. She joined Hinata at the window and stared down at the streets and buildings below. Her eyes darted back and forth as they followed the civilians walking wearily on the street below, h unched over and miserable looking. From where Ino stood, she could see a man being dragged into an alley and knifed, the culprit being three adolescent boys (all three startling thin), desperate enough to kill for money and food. There was a long moment of silence before Ino spoke as she and Hinata watched the three young boys run away from the scene of the crime as their victim bled out. They had seen stuff like this countless times in their short stay in Ame, not to mention in their careers as shinobi, but still, it was wrong. A hidden village should be a refuge not… Not this. Not what Ame was. Hell._

"_I know this makes you uneasy." Ino began softly. "But we both know that this mission won't be accomplished by playing things safe. Trust me, I __**am**__ being careful. But this guy has access to info we need. Besides, I've been at this for almost a week, and this guy is clueless!"_

_Hinata snorted. "Then Masaru must be only a Chuunin, and a barely skilled one at that. Any Jounin or high-level Chuunin would be too paranoid to ask a random woman on a date, especially a foreigner."_

_Ino frowned. "Oh come one Hinata! At least applaud my efforts! Masaru-san actually gave me a tour of the village-"_

"_Did he show you anything remotely related to our mission?"_

"_-Well he showed me some awesome rooftop venues that, with the right planning, we could use to spy on the Akatsuki building-"_

"_What a fool."_

"_-Hey I'm talking here!" Ino huffed._

_Both women tensed into fighting stances when the door to the third floor opened, but relaxed when Sakura walked into the room. The previously-pink-haired-turned-black-haired kunoichi eyed her two companions' stances before concluding that her teammates had been arguing again._

"_Hinata-chan, let Ino do her job. I believe in her abilities." Sakura admonished, her voice light and almost teasing. But her eyes were red-rimmed, as they often were nowadays. Ino and Hinata glanced at each other, but said nothing. Sakura had refused to tell them why she cried so often whenever it rained._

_(Whenever she saw a redhead, whenever she saw a child playing with a doll- puppet, he had always corrected her, slightly insulted- , whenever she glimpsed a person with bright brown eyes, even just the sound of a masculine sigh would make her emotions erupt into turmoil, like a rowboat in a monsoon…)_

_Without replying, the Hyuuga woman walked to the kitchenette built into the building on her right. Sakura's arrival from scouting the sewers signaled dinner time, and Hinata was the unofficial chef of the squad, considering Ino's horrid cooking abilities and Sakura's belief that healthy was better than tasty (resulting in some foul concoctions)._

_As the smell of dinner wafted through the third floor of the abandoned warehouse, Sakura left momentarily to take a shower and wash off the sewer before Ino could begin complaining about the stench, while Ino set the table. The later kunoichi then sat down to read a romance novel while Hinata finished dinner, stroking her reddish hair, wishing for her natural blonde locks. Sakura came out minutes later, drying her short black hair with a cheap towel they had bought at a local store. Black hair dye could be seen faintly on the faded red fabric. The comfortable silence went unbroken as Sakura sat down with her own scroll and began reading while Hinata cooked._

_Hinata's mind wandered back to the scroll sitting of on the table across the room. Again the symbol on the scroll appeared in her mind, and she began to imagine what it could possibly mean. Did they know who they were? Did that person purposely leave the note so that a Hyuuga would find it and recognize it? Were they trying to lure her out? Or was it all just a coincidence? As a shinobi, Hinata didn't really believe in coincidences…_

"_Ouch!" Hinata snatched her hand away from the pot of Kenchinjiru, the skin turning red._

_Ino and Sakura paused to stare at Hinata._

"_I'm fine." Hinata reassured them sweetly, but ran her hand under the sink for good measure. She hissed when the cool water met her burned fingers, and glared at the handle of the pot. She went back to stirring the soup, adding in potatoes, daikon raddish, and tofu, among other ingredients. After about ten minutes the soup was ready, and Hinata began serving the soup and some grilled fish steaks to everyone._

"_Wow! Quite a feast!" Sakura exclaimed. She paused and glanced around. "Where's Jaraiya-sama?"_

_Hinata spoke up. "He left about two hours ago. Just before Ino arrived from her date."_

"_Left?" Ino and Sakura exclaimed in surprise._

_Hinata twiddled her thumbs. "I don't know. He said he had urgent business to attend to. But I got the feeling he was visiting his contact within the Akatsuki."_

_At this Sakura's face shadowed. "Honestly! We spend weeks attempting to integrate ourselves into Ame and establish connections, and that perverted old man won't even share information with us about his Akatsuki contact! Our mission involves those criminals, why can't he try to help out? It's not like we are going to burn the contact!"_

_Ino and Hinata tuned out Sakura's rant, which she normally did when anyone mentioned the Sannin's Akatsuki contact. But it was more than just Sakura wanting an insider in the Akatsuki. She was genuinely curious as to which of the members betrayed the organization. From what she remembered of them, they all seemed to like killing without any repercussions._

_Besides, all the Akatsuki members had faced Konoha nin at some point, and seemed to have no qualms about murdering them. Sakura furrowed her brow. Of course there were a few other members she had never met in her stay- imprisonment, she always had to remind herself- with the Akatsuki. And as fun as those psychotic men were, she couldn't see any of them doing anything for someone like Jaraiya. Of course she had gotten Hidan to make a casserole…_

_Sakura forced herself not to think about them. 'They are not friends. They were __**never**__ friends. Enemies.'_

'_But what about Sasori-kun?' Inner Sakura spoke, but was quickly silenced with a reminder that Sasori was dead. Gone. Never to hold her again. Or smile. Or give that infuriating chuckle-never-quite-a-laugh that always made Sakura want to kiss him dizzy…_

"_Sakura?"_

_Ino's voice broke her out of her reverie. Sakura blinked her eyes, which were suspiciously damp. "Y-Yeah?"_

_Ino's gaze dropped to Sakura's hand. "You've barely touched your food… and you're holding your chopsticks in quite the death grip there…"_

_Sakura looked at her hands and forced them to loosen up. "Gomen." She murmured, and began to eat. The conversation of the table became quite frivolous after that, as the women did not know what else to talk about that wouldn't lead to a depressing or mission related topic._

_After dinner, Ino ran out to grab some groceries, since they were running low on food. They had to be sparing with their money, since they had to be careful that their funds were traceable to Konoha. Hinata and Sakura quietly went over the schematics of the Akatsuki building Hinata had been able to retrieve after a couple days of slipping into the air ducts of the building. Sakura drew a map of the sewer system on a clear sheet and laid in flat over the building's layout._

"_Two potential entrances." She murmured, looking at the maps._

"_The one in the right wing is too close to the library for my liking. The one in the northern wing is less frequented." Hinata pointed out._

_Sakura frowned. "But that's also right underneath on of the Akatsuki members' rooms on the second floor."_

"_We don't have much of a choice, Sakura." Hinata said as she looked up to meet Sakura's eyes. "We will just have to be really quiet."_

_Running a hand through her black hair, Sakura sighed, "Fine. We'll set out tonight."_

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"_Everything ready?" Sakura called over her shoulder as she snapped her medic pouch around her hip._

_A muffled "Yeah!" sounded from Hinata's room before she emerged, struggling to pull a tight ANBU shirt over her large… er, assets. Sakura snickered. Hinata reddened._

"_It's n-not funny! These things are getting to be as b-big as Tsunade-sama's!" Hinata complained as she finally jerked the cloth over her chest._

_Ino walked out, strapping her kunai holster to her right thigh, her bangs obscuring her face as she bent over. "Stupid strap…" she muttered as the kunai holster finally clicked into place. All three girls did one last sweep of their equipment, checking the edge and balance of weapons, tightening straps, and securing scrolls. The ANBU uniforms were form fitting, made of deep navy blue fabric that stretched with their body movement. Their armor was minimal and light, covering their torsos and leg, and their boots had soft leather soles to muffle sound._

"_Did you leave a message for Jaraiya-sama?" Sakura asked Ino._

_Ino nodded. "But shouldn't he have returned by now?"_

_As if by fate, there was a knock on the door._

"_Speak of the perverted devil…" Ino muttered as she went to open the door, leaving Sakura and Hinata in the other room._

_The hallway was quite bare, Ino noticed as she approached the door. Even if it was only a temporary base, maybe she should go get a nice flower pot to stand under the window… Still in thought, Ino opened the door. "It's about time you got ba-"_

_She snapped her mouth shut. How could she be so stupid? She knew better than to open the door without checking! Ino's bright blue eyes widened as she stared into the surprised face of Masaru._

"_M-Masaru-kun!" she exclaimed in surprise, closely the door a little to try and hide her shinobi outfit. But he had already seen it._

_Masaru's eyes narrowed. "Hana-chan…" he murmured suspiciously._

_Ino kept herself still, trying not to shift nervously._

"_You know…" Masaru murmured softly as his arm suddenly slammed the door back. "It's quite rare to see a civilian with formed chakra paths… I thought maybe you were just one of those rare cases."_

_Ino began to back up._

"_But your outfit is very familiar to mine, __**Hana.**__ Or is that even your real name?" He sneered, stepping in through the doorway. "I always wondered why you always wore so many layers. It was to keep God's rain off of you, wasn't it? I should have known."_

_Ino remained silent, her eyes glaring at Masaru, hands twitching for her kunai. But not yet. Wait until he made a move…_

"_So what village are you from? You're obviously wearing an ANBU outfit." Masaru continued to advance and Ino continued to back away. He sneered. "Thought you could play me for a fool, huh?"_

_Ino wanted to roll her eyes. 'Well I obviously did, considering how easily you fell for a mere pretty face.' She thought sarcastically. 'I've taken on ninja stronger than you, boy.' But Masaru seemed to think he was actually intimidating the Yamanaka, as a victorious smirk appeared across his face. Suddenly he didn't look so handsome anymore._

_Ino took one more step back._

_Masaru drew his kunai. "I'll show you a real shin-"_

"_NOW." Ino commanded as Masaru suddenly found himself slammed into the floor, his arms bent backwards so far that they popped and fractured, while his chakra network was completely blocked off. Ino walked over to the fallen Ame shinobi, smirking down at him. In a dangerous low voice she sneered, "Now who's talkin' big boy?" Ino snorted. "I bet you're only a Chuunin."_

_Masaru glared up at her. "Motherfucking bi-" Sakura stuffed a rag in his mouth._

"_Such a dirty mouth." Sakura tutted from atop Masaru, where she sat on his arms, one hand clutching his wrists in an unbreakable hold. Hinata chuckled as she straightened up, finished blocking Masaru's chakra._

"_So what are we going to do with h-him?" Hinata asked as she stared down at Masaru._

"_First things first." Ino said as she helped Sakura haul the shinobi to his feet (not that Sakura needed help). Ino avoided Masaru's eyes as Sakura pulled out some ninja wire and tied the Ame shinobi's wrists behind his back. "We tie this guy to a chair."_

"_Don't even try to struggle against this." Sakura cackled to Masaru, inferring to the ninja wire that held him. "It can cut your hands clean off. And I really don't want blood all over the floor."_

_Hinata lead Ino, Sakura, and their prisoner into the main room, where Hinata pulled over one of the dining chairs for Masaru to sit down in. Sakura and Ino began to tie him to the chair when Masaru managed to spit out the rag in his mouth._

"_Tori o nogarete jutsu!"_

_The kunoichi jumped up in alarm as the water droplets from the rain on Masaru's body quickly gathered on his bleeding wrists where the wire cut into his flesh. Hinata activated her Byakugan and watched in fascinated terror as the chakra infused rainwater mixed with Masaru's blood, forming into a tiny red bird. The creature of blood screeched at them and shot at the nearest window, crashing through the window and into the city._

_Ino immediately rounded on Masaru, smacking him hard enough across the face to rock the chair he was tied to. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?" she demanded in alarm._

_Sakura did nothing to stop the interrogator of their team, pride shining in her eyes at how fearsome her kunoichi team were._

_Masaru spat at Ino, who merely leaned back so the spit would fall short. "Oh you'll find out soon enough!" he laughed. "And to think I thought you were such a nice young woman." He mocker her._

_Ino disregarded his last statement, ignoring Masaru as she spun to face Hinata and Sakura. "Pack everything; erase the evidence! I don't need to read his mind to know that his jutsu is probably leading Ame's forces to us as we speak!"_

_Even as Ino spoke Sakura and Hinata were already on the move. Sakura gathered her ingredients and quickly stored them in her med pack, while Hinata began burning any source of paper in the apartment with small, controlled fire jutsus. Ino swept through the apartment like a maid on steroids, erasing every surface that held their fingerprints and picking up any stray strands of hair and throwing them into the nearest fire. Hinata took out a gift from Kiba, spraying a special chemical around the apartment that would erase their scent. Sakura began a long series of hand signs that erased their chakra presences after they were gone._

"_Hurry! Let's go!" Ino cried._

_The three kunoichi pulled on their ANBU masks and wrapped themselves in their cloaks, jumping out the windows without a word to their prisoner. They ran like ghosts through the rain, their footprints and scents washed away by the water._

_They ran in silence, although Ino's thoughts were screaming at her. Her mask covered her cheeks as a few frustrated tears of anger escaped her grasp. All her fault… She had let her team down. 'No!' she told herself. 'We have gotten out of tighter spots than this! We can make it!'_

_It seemed like thought had just crossed her mind when Sakura's cry rang out, interrupting the steady pounding of rain. Hinata and Ino turned to look for Sakura, only to find her pinned to the roof by a long blade through her shoulder._

"_Forehead-!" Ino choked, and moved to run back to where their teammate had fallen._

_Hinata's hand grasped Ino in an iron grip, preventing her from continuing towards Sakura. From behind her mask Hinata's eyes stared at several points behind the man that gripped the sword imbedded in Sakura. "No Ino! There are twenty shinobi surrounding us! We can't go back!"_

"_I'm not leaving her behind!" Ino snarled and broke away from Hinata, running to where Sakura had fallen._

_Hinata cried out for Ino to stop, but stopped mid-sentence to turn and block an attack from a Rain ninja. In a matter of seconds the Hyuuga woman found herself surrounded by ten shinobi, fending off attacks based in both ninjutsu and taijutsu._

_Ino was halfway to Sakura when Hinata was attacked, and spun around to see Hinata battling a group of shinobi. Torn between her teammates, Ino's attention shifted to Sakura as she heard the Haruno cry out in pain again. The shinobi that had pinned Sakura down had pulled out his sword from her shoulder, and none too gently by the look of it._

_Sakura was already healing herself as she jumped to her feet and slugged the guy in the face before he had time to react. The shinobi closing in on her paused, not anticipating her speed. Sakura took that time to flash step beside on of her attackers, cutting his aorta. The man gurgled, and blood spilled down his front as Sakura moved on to the next enemy. Sakura heard a clang behind her as Ino blocked another attacker. They pressed their backs to each other, breathing heavily._

_Hinata burst through the circle of enemy ninja, putting her back to Sakura and Ino as well, her form heaving from the exertion of fighting ten men at once._

"_I took down four." The Hyuuga panted._

"_Two." Sakura muttered._

"_Two." Ino said as well._

_Hinata swept the area with her Byakugan. "They have back up coming. Any ideas?"_

_Behind her mask, Sakura frowned, rolling her wounded shoulder and wincing. "How many are on their way?"_

"_Two teams." That meant eight more men._

"_We are at too much of a disadvantage for me to use my ShinTenShin." Ino called as she disposed of another Ame nin._

"_What about poison?" Hinata asked as she joined Ino to block a large earth jutsu._

_Sakura frowned, dodging a hail of kunai and shuriken, dropping back to shoot a kunai into a weak spot on the nin in front of her. He fell to one knee, and she flash stepped over to him, pulling out the sword from his uniform and lopping his head off. The three kunoichi regrouped in the middle again, their backs to each other._

"_I don't have enough time to coat my weapons in poison, and I've used up all of my poisoned weapons." Sakura panted. "If I use a poison gas the rain will wash it away. My other offensive jutsus were meant for solo battle, putting you two at risk."_

"_My Byakugan helps, but I'm losing chakra fast." Hinata murmured._

_Seeing several explosive tagged kunai flying towards them, the three separated. Where they had been standing went up with a BOOM! Sakura landed on a different rooftop, and five more shinobi surrounded her._

"_Die bitch!" a rather vulgar shinobi called and leaped at Sakura with lightning speed._

_Sakura quickly stepped out of the way of the sword, her leg slamming into the man and sending him into the sky. At the same time another man leapt at her, a taijutsu expert by the look of it. Sakura smirked. As the man dodged her punch, she didn't slow down and rammed her fist into the rooftop, shattering the concrete and caving in the roof. Sakura leapt away to watch the building collapse, landing close to where Ino was fending off two men._

_Just as Ino attacked one of her enemies, the other shinobi snatched her pigtail, yanking her back. Off balance, Ino yelped and cursed, only to be silenced as a hand suddenly came down on her neck._

_Sakura screamed in rage as her friend crumpled against the man who had knocked Ino out. She ran towards them, but three more men stepped in from of her. 'How many are there? There were less than 30!' Sakura's thoughts raged as she raised her tired limbs to defend herself._

_Another man jumped at her from her periphery. Sakura's hand flew through the signs with little thought. "Kōhō iyashinote no jutsu!"_

_As she dodged the shinobi's kunai swipe, she grabbed his arm, her green healing chakra gathered in her hand and turned a sickening dark green as it raced up his arm the man cried out as his arm began to wither and die, and threw Sakura off before his limb became useless. The next shinobi team came at her more carefully, and Sakura smirked._

"_Chakra no baindo no jutsu!" Hinata screamed through the rain as her palms landed on a shinobi's back just as he was about to cast a jutsu. The chakra flow was immediately blocked and the chakra he was about to release backfired, causing his the blood vessels in his arms to erupt. The man screamed in agony as Hinata dodged his teammate, already forming a plan to kill the next shinobi._

_She looked up at the shinobi carrying Ino's body, attempting to escape with Ino while she and Sakura were fighting. "Oh no you don't!" Hinata snarled and hurtled past the shinobi in front of her. The men attempted to chase her, but Hinata concentrated o catching up to Ino's captors._

_Suddenly her vision was filled with reds clouds on a black sky, and Hinata gasped as she looked up into rippled lavender colored eyes and a face full of piercings. "Kami-sama!" the Rain shinobi behind her gasped. Hinata screamed but her vision was already turning black as his eyes pulled her into a dark genjutsu of nothingness._

_Across the street Sakura screamed at the mysterious Akatsuki member that had downed Hinata, and tried to throw off her attackers. But suddenly she found herself swallowed in a large water jutsu, which one of the shinobi had cast. Sakura felt her limbs grow cold as the water around her froze, and she lost all feeling in her limbs. Reality came crashing down as she found herself falling, the ice shattering as she hit the ground. In shock, Sakura moved sluggishly to stand up, but the orange-haired Akatsuki member was already standing above her, his arms quick as a snake, knocking her out cold. The last thing she felt was the porcelain of her mask crumbling into her cheek._

_End Flashback_

Ino opened her eyes for a moment. The world was spinning all around her, and her arms felt numb. Her dull eyes slid to her right, where Sakura hung from her arms on the wall, the same way she was, and Hinata on Sakura's right. Ino's mind was telling her to do something, but she was so tired...

Her eyes slid shut.

_All my fault, all my fault, all my fault..._

...

...

At the sound of rustling cloth, Ino's eyelids slid open, her eyes blinking blearily around her. There was something green in front of her... She inhaled the sweet, comforting scent of fresh leaves. Her mind instantly flashed to the Ymanaka flowershop, always overflowing with sunlight and gossip. Home.

Distantly, Ino's mind wondered why the plant could move, but her mind was too tired to think farther than that. Something dark green and plant-like brushed her hand, and Ino's first instinct was to grab it.

The plant stilled.

"How strange..." Ino mouthed, but was unable to take in enough air to voice her musings without aggravating her broken ribs, risking puncturing a lung. She ran her fingers over the familiar touch of a waxy cuticle that covered the leaf in her hand. It was not as smooth as it should have been, rather rough in fact, a sign of malnutrition.

"Oh you poor thing..." Ino murmured audibly, her eyes lifting up just enough to glance at the leaf in her hand. "You need more nitrogen, and much more sunlight... I have a special fertilizer in my flower shop that would help... And it would make you a much happier plant..." she giggled softly, sounding almost drunk.

The plant Ino was looking at was staring at her as if she was some kind of alien, with strange, conflicted eyes and a bi-colored face.

_ I must be losing my mind... Maybe I have a concussion... This plant has a face... How odd..._

She lost consciousness.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

On the outskirts of Rain, a warm fireplace was lit in a cozy civilian home. On the outside, the house was dilapidated and out of repair, but on the inside it was cheery, in Ame terms at least. The old furniture still had some stuffing in it, which was a luxury among Ame citizens, and the stone floors were surprisingly dry and clean. It would have been almost comfortable if not for the heavy wood bar and several locks across the doors, or the iron bars on the windows, and the occasional burst of violence outside the walls of the house.

The house belonged to an old friend of Jaraiya's, an old man who remembered the times when Rain was a peaceful city, and no longer had the strength to leave. Now that the old man was sleeping upstairs, the Konoha shinobi began to plot.

"These are the blueprints of the Akatsuki headquarters the girls managed to collect before their capture." Jaraiya rolled the scrolls out for the men to look at. "Unfortunately, all the information the girls collected was erased when they were captured. But Sakura told me before they left that the sewers for secure except for the eastern and northern wings. The eastern wing is the library, from what my sources tell me, and that might be a little risky."

"So it's the northern entrance." Shikamaru murmured around his unlit cigarette.

Jaraiya's eyes studied the boys for a moment. "You three do realize we can't rescue them immediately."

"And why not?" Neji asked him in his insufferable, superior-than-thou voice that only the Hyuuga could accomplish.

"Because their security will be tightened for the next month or so-"

"We can't wait a month!" Neji said vehemently. "Those girls are being tortured as we speak!"

Shikamaru nodded in agreement, and elbowed Sai in the ribs to do the same. Jaraiya frowned. "They can hold out; do not underestimate them."

"It doesn't matter if they can hold out, what matters is that we are in a position to help them, and I will not abandon my teammate." Shikamaru said firmly, but in his mind, he was already imagining life without Ino, so soon after losing Asuma-sensei… No, he would not allow it.

Before another heated argument could break out, Sai held up his hand to silence everyone, a black ink bird landing on his wrist. "We have a message from the Hokage."

Everyone's attention now concentrated on the socially-retarded artist. The ink bird melted onto a scroll, and Sai angled the paper for everyone to see.

"There had been a breach in security." He murmured. "And a ransom for three Leaf kunoichi in return… for the Jinchuriki."

"Naruto would never do it." Jaraiya said nervously, but they all knew differently.

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes. "Not when they have Sakura." He glared at Jaraiya, daring him to protest. "As _captain_ of this team, we are proceeding with my plan. The Akatsuki cannot be allowed to detain Sakura. And we must rescue her and the others before Naruto does something incredibly stupid."

"Your plan will take time, Shikamaru." Jaraiya told him. "We can't just barge into the Akatsuki headquarters!"

Sai folded his hands in his lap. "Dickless will do anything for Ugly." His three companions sweatdropped at Sai's terrible nicknames as Sai continued. "The Genius is right; Dickless will no doubt act incredibly stupidly in light of these events. And what if the kunoichi are the leak? We must make sure that Sakura's team are unable to give the Akatsuki anymore information-"

Shikamaru slammed his fist into Sai's face, beating Neji to the punch. Literally. The Hyuuga stopped himself from punching Sai in the other cheek, trying to maintain composure.

"Those girls would _never_ betray Konoha." Shikamaru growled. "They are _not_ the leak."

"We can't be sure." Sai said, rubbing his face. The Root operative marveled at how little the punch hurt compared to Sakura's beatings.

"I am sure." Jaraiya said. "Sakura, especially. She is Tsunade's apprentice, and would be too proud to give in."

Sai glanced between his three companions. They trusted their comrades so completely that he was at a loss. Root members trusted no one. And though Sai trust Naruto and Sakura… It was still a little bewildering to see the same level of trust in others.

The silence was broken by Jaraiya. "My Akatsuki contact told me that most of the organization will be out on missions this week, and begin returning about six days from now. Tomorrow morning the last team will leave on a mission, and only two Akatsuki members will remain in the building after that."

"That gives us five days." Shikamaru rested his chin on his hands. "My plan can be put into action within three days. That gives us two days before we have to worry about any Akatsuki teams being sent after us."

"Do we know which members are remaining within the building?" Neji asked.

Jaraiya frowned. "The current 'Kage' of Rain. God and his Angel."

* * *

><p><strong>Is it just me, of was the ending a little anti-climatic? Oh well. And if any of you remember, Sasori has spies in every hidden village who are activated by some kind of mind control jutsu that Sasori has. That way the sleepers have no idea they are the spies, and never remember giving Sasori any information.<strong>

**I wasn't originally going to put the part in where Ino mistakes Zetsu for a plant and mumbles incoherently... but hey, whatever, I decided to lol.**

**Anyway, so if any of you follow ****"It's In Her Eyes" ****, I'm sorry. Fucking FF deleted it for whatever reason, something about the rating or whatever… DAMMIT I RATED IT ****M**** JUST IN CASE PEOPLE! I MEAN WHAT THE HELLL?**

**Read and Review! (And tell me if the above statement pisses you off as much as it pisses me off) Don't worry, I'll re-post the story as soon as Fanfiction will let me.**

**~Lilithia 3**


	22. Chapter 22

**Obviously I don't own Naruto. Duh.**

**ERMAGERD I AM SO SORRY GOMEN GOMEN GOMEN I SO SOWWWWWWYYYYYY. YOU MUST HATE ME. I HATE ME. FORGIVE ME? PLEASE? I'M BEGGING YOU.**

**Like alskdfh;alskhgalksdfjl ITS BEEN FREAKING FOREVER. I. AM. SO. SORRY.**

**School has been a bitch to me. I am really focusing on my rank this year and yeah so many AP classes and hours of homework research papers and im blabbing but can't even imagine how many months I went going to bed after 1 AM.**

**I didn't update in August? Well, I had summer band. 8AM to 8 PM. In August. In Texas. I died. And I would get home on weeknights at 7pm after practices and Friday night football games getting home at 1am and weekends spent trying to finish the homework I didn't do during the week and **

**I will shut up.**

**Read.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

><p><span><em>Chapter Twenty-Two: Tending the Fire<em>

His rimmed pupils glared so harshly at the wall in front of him, he could already imagine the walls bursting into flames. He wanted to rip, tear, and destroy that infuriating, obnoxious, self-serving hypocrite.

"Pein-sama." Konan murmured from the corner of the room as she materialized.

"He needs to die!" Pein growled with so much ferocity that Konan almost lost her composure. "The Akatsuki's purpose is corrupted, just like he corrupts everything in his path. I will not see my plans wither and die. Not again."

Konan remained silent, her eyes narrowing. "Zetsu…" she murmured.

"He is not on the premises." Pein muttered. "I made sure of that before I spoke. I am not a fool."

Konan took a seat in one of the chairs before Pein's desk, relaxing slightly to know that Madara's eyes and ears were gone for the moment. She and Pein could now speak without fear of being heard.

"Who can we trust to side with us?" Konan asked. "You know this won't just go away. The Akatsuki will tear itself apart until you or Madara become the sole leader."

"Tch." Pein put a hand to his head, rubbing his eyes. "You speak of civil war, Konan."

The blue-haired woman shrugged. "It is the truth."

Lifting his head, the man leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "It is already happening. I have already instigated my plans against Madara. Sasori, Deidara, and Kisame we can trust on our side. Hidan is unpredictable. Kakuzu will likely side with Madara and Zetsu.

"And Uchiha Itachi?" Konan questioned.

Pein paused. "He is a wild card. He has worked directly under Madara the entire time he has been with the Akatsuki. However we both know there is animosity between him and his master- maybe, just maybe, we can use this to our advantage to turn him to our cause.

Konan and Pein locked gazes for a long moment.

"And what of the invasion of Konoha?" she finally asked him.

"It depends on whether Madara is still alive."

* * *

><p>Her eyesight was blurry. She kept blinking, but nothing would focus. All she could register was the constant pain that encompassed the whole of her left side. She moaned in pain, the sound was as faint and weak to her ears as she felt.<p>

"Sakura…"

She tried so hard to lift her head. So hard. But it felt like every bone in her body weighed a ton, and her muscles were nothing but fraying strings.

"Sakura!"

She tried to focus her gaze again, but her world was still dim, gray, and blurry.

"Wake up…" the insistent voice was so soft, and fading.

_I'm trying to!_ She wanted to scream. But her voice was gone, her vocal chords raw.

"Please, Forehead…" That voice... _Ino._

In a great feat of strength, Sakura tuned her head left in the direction of her friend.

"Oh thank the gods you're awake!" Ino sobbed quietly. "You were so still and quiet for so long, I thought-" she choked up a little.

"Hi… na… ta…" Sakura managed to force out.

Ino shook her head, wincing when the movement cracked open the scabs on her arms. "She hasn't stirred since she returned from her last session."

Worry nagged at the edges of Sakura's mind, but her thoughts were still too sluggish to process them very coherently. So instead she took the time to observe where they were.

All three girls were suspended in the crucifixion pose, their arms cuffed to the walls in a spread eagle fashion. The clamps held their arms at the wrist, elbow, and the junction of the arm and shoulders. There was no escaping these. Their legs almost too short to reach the ground, slightly suspended from their imprisoned arms. There were cuffs on their ankles, with chains to connect them to the wall. Every movement was accompanied by the depressing clinks and jingles. Their clothes were shoddy, barely covering enough to be decent.

Sakura managed to force her head to the right, giving a small cry as pain split the back of her head. There was something warm and wet oozing down the back of her neck. _When did I get that?_ She wondered absent-mindedly as her eyes finally alighted on Hinata's limp figure. Sakura's heart nearly shot out of her ribcage at the sight of how badly Hinata looked.

And a burning rage flamed through her veins when she saw the mark on Hinata's forehead.

"What… IS THAT?!" She hissed with more vehemence than she had thought she would be capable in her state.

"I don't know." Ino answered. "I wasn't conscious when they brought her in. I woke up a couple hours ago to see-….. that." Ino's voice broke a little at the end of her sentence.

"We… need to get out of here…" Sakura whispered weakly, tears gathering in her eyes, and she had to look away from the mark on Hinata before she lost her composure. Already her body was telling her that she had been awake for too long, and there were dots dancing before her eyes. Black tendrils were making their way across her vision, her world darkening. The blood on her neck was warm.

"We… won't… last…" Sakura didn't finish her sentence before she was unconscious again.

"Sakura! Stay awake!" Ino whispered, coughing up some blood. But her captain was already unconscious.

* * *

><p>The platinum blonde kunoichi allowed her head to drop to her chest, tears dribbling down her cheeks. "We… We will make it." She muttered to herself. "We have to."<p>

But it was pointless to delude herself. Ino knew that their team had gone into this mission knowing that they wouldn't have back up. Jaraiya would have been their own support, except that man had a knack for going off on some other 'important business' just before disaster struck. They were alone.

Scrunching her eyes shut, Ino envisioned her home. The smell of flowers. Fresh water spraying from overhead sprinklers onto the plants. Just above that her mother's perfume had always wafted faintly. Behind the checkout counter was her favorite magazine, and somehow there was always a blonde strand or two to be found on the floor (_No matter how much I vacuum, how is it your hair still remains? Her mother had complained_). The colors, so vibrant- green, reds, golds, blues, deeper than the ocean and brighter than the sun, every shade of color imaginable…

Ino was jolted out of her temporary heaven as something jangled by the door. Her eyes shot up to see the most curious man she had ever met- a plant man. He unlocked the door and walked in, his aura so calm and serene that it made her hair stand on end. His expression was placid, but something about him was making her ninja senses scream danger.

"Oh? Only one is awake?" He sighed, his voice was deep but androgynous, with only the faintest hints of masculinity. "Then I guess only one will be fed."

Ino stiffened as the man walked over to her. She couldn't see his feet because of the Akatsuki cloak, but the way he glided was unnatural. His body didn't move as humans do with their legs. It literally looked like he was gliding on the floor. His proximity allowed her to examine his bi-colored face, black and the palest green. There was a curious plant fixture settled on his shoulders, reminiscent of a fly-trap. The most unnerving thing about him was his eyes. They were a dark gold, bestial, and shone with a carnal savagery that hungered and hungered and was never satisfied.

"Who… Are you?" she murmured.

The strange shinobi regarded her for a moment, strange emotions flashing in his eyes that even Ino, for all her knowledge in human manipulation, was left at a lost as to what they meant.

"I am Zetsu." He said simply.

Ino was unable to stop herself from shivering. She was too weary to feel terrified of this man, but her insides were regardless curling in on themselves. She gripped her hands into fists. Her head was processing slower than her physical reactions, causing her mind to reel in confusion.

The man licked his lips. She clenched her muscles to prevent the shiver that threatened to crawl up her spine.

"I guess I'm supposed to feed you." And then something happened that, in that moment, Ino could only describe as odd: the black half of his face reacted differently than the paler side, his voice dropping an octave. **"Such menial tasks are below me."**

Ino lifted her head to stare at him face-on, his mouth falling open. "You- uh- wha-" she stuttered like an idiot.

Zetsu smirked and began opening the box of food he brought with him. He began picking up the food (it looked like halfway-cooked rice and what she hoped was chicken), when he paused to stare at her, assessing.

Then Zetsu set the food on the ground near Ino, and reached up to unceremoniously uncuff her arms. Ino let out a surprised gasp as her body fell hard to the ground, jarring her fragile bones, and she felt the cracks in the marrow from her torture sessions shoot splinters into her flesh. Ino hissed, the cold of the stone floor felt painful against her sensitized skin. Carefully, she managed to push herself into the sitting position, slouched disgracefully against the wall. The rag that served as a cover for Ino's body slipped off one shoulder, dangerously dipping down to her chest. Luckily her hair was long enough to hide that half of her body, for he was too tired to move the garment into place.

"**Feed yourself. I will not demean myself to follow the orders of a pretender." **Zetsu scoffed, using his foot to nudge the tray of crappy food closer.

"How rude." The lighter voice of Zetsu scolded himself.

Ino stared up at them- him- … er, it, as the two halves argued. "I must be hallucinating…" she muttered, gingerly shaking her head.

"No, I don't think we've tended to the Halmar Lotus yet." Zetsu replied thoughtfully. "Your perceptions should be fine."

"**You idiot, she's talking about us."**

"Oh, that makes sense too."

"**I am stuck with an idiot."**

"But that means you're calling yourself and idiot, and that would be a paradox.. oxymoron?-"

"**You're the moron-"**

"Or is it irony? One could also call it parallelism…"

"**Shut up with the fucking rhetorical devices. Why the fuck did master ever lend us those English texts, I will never know. But you - we- can't speak English, so shut up. You're giving me –us- a headache."**

"Oh, ouch, yes, I feel it too."

"**If I wasn't connected to you…" **The darker half growled, lifting its respective dark green-colored arm to give himself a facepalm.

Ino was still staring at them.

"Eat already, kunoichi." The lighter half told her.

Dumbfounded, Ino nodded and picked up the chopsticks. She tenderly tasted every bite, just waiting for the tell-tale bitterness or overly sweet tastes that would be poison.

"If we wanted to kill you we wouldn't use poison. Trust me." Zetsu said casually as he leaned back against the bars of the door, pulling a book from his cloak and beginning to read.

And with that Ino threw aside her dignity and ate with gusto, her starved stomach clenching at the feeling of something edible sliding down her throat. She couldn't remember the last time she had eaten.

When all the food was gone (and Ino was still hungry, the stingy bastards) she placed the container down and wiped her mouth with her arm, absentmindedly pulling the rag over her shoulders for some kind of decency.

For a minute or so Zetsu didn't respond to her finishing her food, only kept on reading. Ino's eyes roved over his figure for a second time, trying to understand what kind of being he was. Then she read the title of the book.

"You're a botanist?" she couldn't help but blurt out surprised. _Great Ino. Blunt as always._

Zetsu lifted his head. "Yes."

Ino studied to the book and scoffed.

"Is there something you wish to say, kunoichi?" Zetsu asked her when her comments were withheld.

"That book has several inconsistencies." She muttered, not daring to raise her voice.

Zetsu pushed off of the bars, standing straighter and staring down at her. "Oh? What makes you so knowledgeable on plants?"

If she were stronger, Ino would have crossed her arms. "I'll have you know that my family is the premiere botanists of the village."

Zetsu seemed amused. "Nutmeg." He challenged.

Ino smirked as much as her pained face would allowed her. "Is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously." She shot back.

Zetsu blinked in surprise. She had risen to his challenge. "Onions."

"Contain a mild antibiotic that fights infections, soothes burns, tames bee stings, and relieves itchiness." Ino replied.

"Aconitum."

"Wolfsbane?" Ino scoffed. "Puh-lease, that one's easy. The entire plant contains an alkaloid called aconitine, which disables nerves, lowers blood pressure, and can stop the heart; even casual skin can cause poisoning; symptoms include numbness, tingling, and cardiac irregularity."

Zetsu almost smiled, much to his darker half's horror. "On more then: Cerbera odollam."

"The suicide tree?" Ino smirked again. "The seeds contain cerberin, a potent alkaloid toxin related to digoxin, which blocks the calcium ion channels in heart muscle, causing disruption of the heartbeat. Typically fatal from ingesting just a single seed. The cerberin is difficult to detect in autopsies and its taste can be masked with strong spices, such as a curry. It is often used in homicide and suicide."

Zetsu, dark and light, let out a simultaneous chuckle, which was an odd mix of their two voices. "Very impressive kunoichi. It has been far too long since I have had an enlightening conversation. You are an intriguing one."

"I try." Ino muttered sarcastically.

"Well unfortunately our time is up." Zetsu walked up to her and lifted her body effortlessly, returning her arms to their cuffs. Ino frowned. Zetsu shrugged. "Orders are orders."

"Blah blah blah." She muttered, her words slurred as exhaustion took over. Zetsu chuckled again as she lost consciousness, her last sight was of the Akatsuki member picking up the food container and walking towards the door, the sound of keys ringing in her ears.

* * *

><p><em>Croak.<em>

_Croooooooak._

_Croak!_

The faint sound of something wet smacked onto the cement floor of the sewer walkway. Light from the manhole above shone down on glistening skin, mottled green and brown. Great unblinking eyes looked up into the light, leaping an astounding height through the hole of the metal cover, entering building.

The frog then leaned its head back and opened its mouth. The jaw opened wide, dark and depthless as it got wider… and wider…

Until it was large enough that a man could fit through it. Make that three.

Three shadowy figures crawled silently out of the Summon, careful not to make a sound. Ginger footsteps and shifty-eyed, the three shinobi were careful to keep their chakra under tight wraps. Just one flare would alert their enemy, who's quarters were, according to blueprints, just two stories above their position. And while it was not advisable to sneak in so close to the enemy, the dungeons were not far away.

The men stole into the dark, dank halls, the frog hiding in a shadowed corner to await the shinobi when they returned with their objectives.

Shikamaru took front, oddly enough. His shadow jutsu gave him complete control of the dark labyrinth, but more importantly keep him aware of whether the infamous Zetsu was nearby. By luck the creature was not in the building, much to their relief. This was not a mission for confrontation.

They ran, barely touching the floor. The soles of their nin-slippers made only a miniscule whisper against the cold floor. Quick _sh sh sh_ from the taps of their toes.

When they got to the dungeon, there was only one cell with living occupants. They did not bother glancing at the other cells, some with newly deceased people, others with long decayed pieces of flesh. The smell was overpowering.

Their eyes, though, were shockingly transfixed, terrifyingly engrossed, glued with dawning horror on the three bodies hanging on the walls of the Akatsuki dungeon. Time stopped, frozen as the sight before the men sank in.

Blood.

Dried blood.

Rivulets were dried on the walls, pools long settled in the floor, spattered in red freckles and large stains on tarnished, sullied skin. It was in their hair, what was left of their clothes, under their fingernails, and on their lips like a scorned prayer.

Were they breathing?

It was impossible to tell from outside the gate.

Sai was the first to recover, quickly creating an ink skeleton key to unlock the gate. And just in case the hinges were creaky, he directed his ink into the gears to keep the door silent as it swung open, the iron bars cold to the touch.

He walked in slowly, not glancing at the other girls as his gaze fell on Sakura. A feeling he could not name sunk into his stomach. It made his insides roil, his brain was caught between shutting down and going into overdrive, his lungs were trying to decide if they wanted to hyperventilate or stop altogether. He wanted to scream at the sky for the unfairness of it all -_this beautiful cherry blossom hacked to pieces_- but at the same time the bile constricted his throat.

She was supposed to be able to heal herself. Sakura was never hurt- _not physically_- she could not, should not, and was never supposed to bleed. But the red- _red red red red red red red red dark red dark dark burgundy_- was everywhere. As if she had been bathed in it.

The thought made him sick. Sai never got sick.

Her arms and legs were limp in their restraints –_they were supposed to be strong, powered, shattering mountains_- and so covered in – _red red red red red red red red dried dried dried dried red red _– that he couldn't even see where one cut ended and another began.

Sai wanted to erase it all. But this was reality. He could not wash this image away so easily. His hands, shivering – _why were his hands shivering and trembling and moving so erretically? They were supposed to be steady, so he could paint his canvas-_ as he reached to hold a strand of Sakura's hair in each hand. Now anger entered the turmoil of emotions in his head.

This red did not go with her pink.

_Make it stop._

Shikamaru could not believe his eyes. Ino- _tall, slender, beautiful Ino_- was like a living skeleton. Her body was starved, and looked so, so fragile. Her hair- _like starlight, pale, bright rays of light_- was limp and stringy, no longer in its ponytail, but falling about her thin body and engulfing Ino so that her body was half-hidden. Her head hung against her chest so that Shikamaru was unable to see her face, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to.

If he could withstand the blow.

_She was so strong, so strong, and now he was so weak, so so weak-_

Slowly, achingly, his arm lifted up. Of its own accord his hand reached to touch her cheek, to lift her head… but then he forced himself to drop it. If he were to touch her… would she shatter?

"_Hinata…"_ Neji mouthed, but did not have the strength to voice the name. For the first time in his life his knees went weak. His heart pounded so fast in his chest he thought it would leap out and impale itself on the nearest weapon, it was in so much pain.

Long, midnight strands had been shorn crudely, some long, others up to Hinata's neck. Her arms were splayed across the wall, discolored from lack of bloodflow and abuse. The cloth draped across her body left too much of her exposed to display the bruises and cuts that littered her body. Many were already half healed and set with infection. She might already be dying.

Her bangs had grown so long, though, that they completely covered Hinata's face from the way it hung down towards the floor.

A foreboding emotion stole over the Hyuuga male, scraping its claws down his spine and clutching as his hear t greedily, sinking its cackling fangs into his mind. Without thought, possessed by this dark force, Neji's hand reached up to Hinata's face. He pulled back the bangs.

STOP.

Everything. Stopped.

Like a hurricane had punched his gut.

Tearing at his flesh and conscious and shattering his bones.

_Laughing in his ears; his own vow to take revenge on the girl before him when he was young and foolish.._

And the crown in blood and flesh on Hinata's forehead howled triumphantly in his face.

* * *

><p>Sasori sighed and leaned against the trunk of the tree, crossing his legs languidly as the village of Konoha loomed in the distance. Deidara was sitting in the tree across from him, both men seemingly at ease sitting a hundred feet up in the air.<p>

The puppet master frowned as his thoughts wandered. His puppets had informed him that Uchiha Sasuke had rejoined Konoha, no doubt under the influence of that loud-mouthed, bratty blonde that Sakura had adored so much.

_(But Sakura was not in the village, they had told him, she was on a mission…)_

How was Sasori and Deidara supposed to take out that moronic Uchiha if that jinchuriki was constantly hanging around him? That- what was his name? Oh yes, Naruto- that Naruto was about as subtle as a nuclear bomb blast. Just like the other blonde idiot in Sasori's life (the puppet master glared at his partner as the thought crossed his mind). He wondered briefly if the two loudmouths were related… now that was a terrifying thought.

"Neeeeeeeeh are we ever going to get something done? I don't see why we can't just blow up the entire village, un. He'd die eventually, whether from smoke inhalation or burning to death." Deidara let out an evil cackle. "Imagine the look on Itachi-teme's face, yeah!"

Sasori gave Deidara an unimpressed look. "I can give you three reasons not to: a) that would interrupt Pein's plan against Madara, b) Itachi would kill a thousand times in his Sharingan-world-thing, and c) Sakura would tear you to shreds."

Deidara paled. Of the three shinobi mentioned, he wasn't sure which one he was most afraid of. The blonde blinked. "Hey, that's the first time you've mentioned Sakura's name since…. Well, a long time!"

Sasori instantly shut off his emotions and turned away.

The redhead glanced back at the village. _She should not have to choose between me and her home. I'll let her move on. As long as she is happy. Sakura, you won't have to cry again._

"Danna, you can't do this to yourself-"

"Shut up brat!" Sasori snarled. "She's better off without me!"

* * *

><p><em><strong>Quick Note<strong>_**: **_Sasori has no idea Sakura was captured. When he heard her scream he thought he was just being delusional. Sasuke is no longer a love interest (strictly SasoSaku now). Yes, Neji and Hinata are cousins (Hyuugacest) but in Japan it is very legal to marry cousins, even today._

**Did you know November is SasoSaku month? ****The same month as my birthday~~~~~**** \(*,*)/! I found out recently so I decided I owed you all an update. **

**OHMYGAWD IT'S SO GOOD TO BE BACK. Don't worry; I will make this all up to you guys during the Christmas break (Yay for the holidays!)**

**I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I'm so thankful to you guys.**

**And after your reviews (HINT HINT) please tell me how you've been since my disappearance (What'd you do for Thanksgiving, a funny story in the past months, any good _new _Sakura stories since I've read almost all of them, **_**how much you missed me? Lol)**_

**You are.**

**THE BEST.**

**Readers.**

**I love you all. *huggles!***

**Please Review!**

**~~~Lilithia :)**


	23. Chapter 23

**So. Um.**

*****_**desperately dodges various sharp and pointy objects from the audience* **_**(TT_TT) -****tears**

**I AM SO. SO. SO. SO. SOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSO SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SOOOOORRRRRRRYYYY!**

**So I know I took, like, an unexpected haitus with this story. I AM SERIOUSLY SO SORRY! Junior year was so busy I just couldn't reenergize my creative flow and time just… went by…**

**I've worked weeks on this. Which is longer than I usually take on a chapter, but I found myself losing sight of the story a lot and we can't have that now can we?**

**I'll shut up now.**

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER APPLIES**

* * *

><p><em><span>Chapter Twenty-Three: A Forewarning<span>_

It was dead silent on the way back.

Shikamaru glanced down at the woman he was holding in his arms as he and his team rushed back to the village with their wounded comrades. Ino's breathing was raspy. He could feel the air rattle in her chest as her lungs expanded dangerously towards broken ribs. However he dare not shift her body in his arms as he jumped from tree to tree. One wrong move and Ino might reopen one of her wounds.

All three kunoichi had been out cold since Shikamaru, Neji, and Sai had found them. After escaping the Akatsuki fortress, Jaraiya had gone ahead to clear a path to Konoha so that the shinobi would not be hindered by bandits or rogue ninja on the way back. No one had even stopped to sleep since they left Ame, surviving on soldier pills and cutting down their travel time by half.

"Halt." Shikamaru said softly, although he knew that Sai and Neji had heard him since they immediately began slowing their paces. They landed gently on the forest floor, panting and sweating, but not complaining about their burdens. Shikamaru glanced at the bodies that they each carried. "You know the drill. Time to redress the wounds. Neji, make sure to give Hinata water, she has lost a lot of blood."

Shikamaru lowered Ino's body to lean against one of the larger trees, his eyes flickering over her limp form. Her body was huddled within his flak-jacket and his spare nin-pants were barely able to keep from slipping off her slim waist. However there was no time for decency, and Shikamaru carefully removed his clothes from the blonde's body, using the flak-jacket to instead cushion her back against the tree as he washed her wounds.

Ino's body was covered in cuts. It had been harder to see it in the darkness of the dungeon; however in the daylight it was clear where razor blades had easily sliced open her flesh. Between the ribs, under the collar bones… Torture that inflicted the most pain without causing unconsciousness or death. Shikamaru ground his teeth as he wrapped a clean roll of gauze around Ino's torso. Next he moved to Ino''s fingers and toes. Every one of them had been broken in the most brutal and punishing way, shattering and splintering the joints, leaving no clean break in the bone. This was beyond basic first-aid, so all Shikamaru could do was re-align the joints to the best of his abilities and wrap them carefully but firmly in bandages.

Replacing his flak-jacket over Ino's chest, Shikamaru knelt in front of her as he buttoned it up. "I'm so sorry this happened to you, Ino…" he whispered, staring intently at her face.

He took in how her eyelashes cast shadows on her high cheekbones, her plump lips that were chapped and slightly bloody. There was a faint bruise on her left cheek that had been steadily fading since her rescue. Shikamaru reached to cup her cheek, before sliding his hand back to gather Ino's wheat-colored hair in his hands and pulling them over her shoulder. He ran his fingers through her strands, scratching at the blood that had dried and crusted along her scalp. She always did love when people ran their fingers through her hair. More specifically, when her father had done it. Or… or when it had been himself. Shikamaru's hands began weaving her hair into a simple braid, taking out his own ponytail to use for Ino.

"There." Shikamaru murmured as the braid rested on Ino's shoulder. "Far less troublesome."

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

"_-Neji, make sure to give Hinata water, she has lost a lot of blood."_

Normally Neji would have scowled at such an obvious order, however right now he was too distracted to do so. Hinata had been naked when Neji had found her body in the Akatsuki dungeon, and so the kunoichi was currently clothed in his jacket and a pair of Neji's spare trousers. Immediately the Hyuuga male turned to Hinata, taking off the jacket and lying her on top of it on the grass as he carefully unwrapped the bloody rags that seemed to engulf her entire body. Pulling out his canteen and a clean cloth, Neji carefully began washing her wounds, gently but firmly scrubbing off the dried blood and puss. Hinata's arms, torso, and legs were mottled in yellow, green, and purple bruising; her breathing was shallow but quiet, eerily so, and Neji constantly felt for her heartbeat just to reassure himself that Hinata was still alive.

Pulling out healing ointment, Neji began redressing her wounds, re-wrapping her body in clean bandages. When that was done, Neji propped Hinata's head up in his lap, putting his canteen to her lips and carefully pouring a small but steady stream of water into her mouth, rubbing her neck so that the unconscious girl would swallow the water. As he was doing so, his eyes once again alighted on the one wound he had yet to clean.

Setting aside the canteen, Neji dreadfully unwrapped the gauze around Hinata's forehead. A hiss escaped him as he gazed on the Caged Bird seal carved mercilessly into Hinata's forehead. It was not a true seal, in that there was no chakra, no power of activation within it. It was a mere mockery of the true seal, but even symbols held power. Neji cleaned this wound with extra care, hoping with all his heart that it would not scar Hinata's innocent face. He sat there for a few minutes, staring at the angry red cuts that seemed to glow against Hinata's alabaster skin, burning into his mind with shame.

Neji let out a pent-up sigh, closing his eyes and silently apologizing to his clan mate. His fingers delicately applied healing ointment to Hinata's forehead, wrapping a clean cloth around her head to hide the offending seal from view.

Glancing up at his teammates, Neji surmised that he had about half an hour to rest before they continued. Running his fingers through Hinata's hair, Neji closed his eyes and began to meditate, attempting to calm the turmoil within himself. 'Almost home, Hinata.' Neji thought. 'Hang in there.'

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

Sai worked wordlessly as he cleaned Sakura's wounds- _there should not be any wounds- _and wrapped them in clean gauze- _she's always been the healer, not the patient-_. His chest felt odd; it felt heavy and his heart ached with a pain he couldn't quite describe. Maybe he picked up some form of disease in the dungeons? He would not have been surprised given the messiness of the place.

The Root member clenched his fists to stop them from shaking- _why would they be shaking?- _before he began to apply ointment to Sakura's cuts- _so many cuts, so much blood, red red red red red-._ Where was the green? _Open your eyes, prove that you're alive. _He had never seen Sakura so… lifeless. No yelling, no crying, no laughing… The blood that had dried in her hair stained the pink red, made her hair stiff, so that not even the wind seemed touch Sakura and every part of her was still- _kick, punch, DO SOMETHING- _so very, very still.

Sai paused to squeeze his eyes shut, taking a deep breath to quell the abnormal amounts of thoughts rushing through his head faster than he could process.

Opening his eyes, he stared at her still face. Not peaceful, not happy, nothing but a blank slate. Still as death…

_Ba-bump._

_Ba-bump._ _Ba-bump._

_Ba-bump._ _Ba-bump._

_Ba-bum_p_Ba-bumpBa-bumpBa-bumpBa-bump!_

His heartbeat was ringing in his ears and suddenly it was hard to breathe. The shakiness of his hands seemed to get worse and without a thought Sai was scrambling to get his hands on her neck, to place his fingers on her pulse and feel that she was alive- _Sakura isn't dead, Sakura isn't dead, Sakura is not dead not dead not dead-_ and to reassure himself that her heart was still beating, even if she may not seem alive.

'Stop panicking.' Sai scolded himself. 'We will reach Konoha and everything will go back to normal. Sakura will be fine.'

Nevertheless, Sai pulled Sakura's petite body into his lap and curled his arms around her, placing his ear against her chest so that he could listen to her heart beating as he meditated.

"Okay team, time to get moving again." Shikamaru's dry voice reached the root operative's ears.

Sai's eyes slid open and he stared the kunoichi in his arms, dressed in his spare clothes which hung loosely off of her frail form. She wasn't normally this thin.

"Sai." Neji's voice interrupted his musings.

"Hai, hai." Sai sighed as he stood up, gathering Sakura into his arms and leaping into the trees to follow his teammates.

_~~~The Flower of Konoha~~~_

They had about 5 hours left of travel before they would reach the outskirts of Konoha, Shikamaru noted absently. Trees blurred by and by, until all Shikamaru was registering was the constant blur of green and brown, the smell of leaves and animals, the wind at his back and the clouds in the sky.

Jump.

Land.

Repeat.

Jump.

Land.

Jump.

Land.

It was very calming. The sunlight was warm and soothing, sometimes interrupted by a stray cloud that provided brief shade before continuing on its path through the sky. Shikamaru could almost forget his troubles.

"Captain." Shikamaru tilted his head towards Neji in silent acknowledgment. The Hyuuga's Byakugan was activated, staring with concern at something far ahead of them. "There are two shinobi waiting for us up ahead. Judging by their chakra, they are extremely strong, and possibly dangerous."

Shikamaru frowned, snapping to attention to check their surroundings. He had not realized that they were a only a few miles out from the outskirts of Konoha. The chakra signatures that Neji was worried about were on the edge of his sensing abilities.

"Jaraiya should have cleared a path for us…" Shikamaru muttered. "How did they get past him?"

"I don't know, but I suggest being on alert." Neji replied as the trio began slowing down. The pair of unknown chakra signatures started to move in their direction, steadily but slowly.

"Hyuuga, take Ino." Shikamaru ordered, keeping his eyes and ears trained in the direction of the approaching figures, which were two shadows in the trees by now. Wordlessly Neji shifted Hinata to one shoulder and picked up an unconscious Ino on his other shoulder. Leaving their captain to face the unknown company, Neji and Sai back tracked to find a safe place to hide the bodies of Ino, Sakura, and Hinata. Sai used his ink jutsu to create a small cocoon in the crook of several large tree limbs in which the kunoichi were placed inside, cradles safely above ground and away from immediate danger, should it arise. Then Neji and Sai crouched in wait, watching from afar as Shikamaru was approached by two cloaked figures.

Shikamaru stared suspiciously down at the two cloaked shinobi, who waited for him at the forest floor. When neither made a move to confront him, Shikamaru leapt down to land in front of them, adopting a lazy stance and aloof façade.

"These are the restricted forests of Konohagakure." He began. "State your business or leave immediately."

There was a long pause before one of the figures spoke. "We mean no harm." A low, serious voice spoke from the shorter figure.

"Then why do I get the impression that you and your partner were waiting specifically for my team?" the Nara drawled.

The speaker shifted. "We sensed a familiar presence among those that you bring with you. Specifically, Haruno Sakura."

Shikamaru blinked but otherwise showed no reaction. However he made a slight movement with his hand ordering Sai and Neji, wherever they were hiding, to stand down, knowing that Sai in particular was overprotective of Sakura ever since her imprisonment by the Akatsuki.

"Regardless of whether your suspicions are true or not, what business would two unfamiliar shinobi- and judging from your appearance, most likely rogue ninja- have with a kunoichi of Konoha?" Shikamaru questioned. He narrowed his eyes. "And how would you be so familiar with her chakra signature?"

The speaker of the two ninja stepped forward, and with slow movements, removed his hood. Contrary to his deep voice, Shikamaru was surprised by a youthful, almost boyish face framed by dark red curls. Hazel eyes revealed that this shinobi was far older and more experienced than he looked, and shone with an emotionless and hard gaze that seemed to penetrate Shikamaru's calm demeanor.

"You ask questions that I think you already know the answer to, if you are half the genius that Sakura once described to me." The young man stated.

Now Shikamaru stood up straight, flaring his chakra signature to get another reading of the man in front of him. "You are… Akatsuki."

Immediately Shikamaru felt Sai and Neji close in on his position, taking offensive positions to create a triangle around the two missing nin. However neither Akatsuki member reacted, or seemed affected in the slightest by the hostile move.

"You better have a good reason for this." Shikamaru warned.

A chuckle escaped the redhead's partner from behind him as he threw back his hood to reveal bright blonde hair and wild blue eyes. "You better hurry, Danna. I think you're making them impatient."

Shikamaru's eyes widened at the sight of Deidara, and he fell into a defensive stance while drawing a kunai. "You are wanted S-class criminals, charged with the kidnapping and murder-"

"He came back to life, yeah!-"

"- of the Kazekage of Suna!" Shikamaru stated, knowing that Neji and Sai were also ready for confrontation.

"You idiot." Deidara's partner growled at him.

The redhead slowly raised his hands form his sides, showing that he was unarmed. "Please excuse my dumbass of a partner-"

"Hey!-"

"-and listen to what I have to say. My name is Akasuna Sasori, I am a Master Puppeteer of Sunagakure and a member of the organization known as Akatsuki." The redhead stated calmly. "We have some information you might find interesting, Nara."

Shikamaru stared long and hard at the two Akatsuki members before he relaxed his stance and signaled for his teammates to reveal themselves. Sai and Neji landed next to him, flanking his position.

"Why would you be willing to help us?" Shikamaru asked.

"I happen to be quite skilled at medical jutsu." Sasori said with an even tone. "I insist that you allow me to treat Haruno Sakura before I give you any information."

"That is the most stupid thing we could do at this moment."

Everyone turned to look at Sai. He blinked.

"I second that." Shikamaru said, looking back at Sasori. "I'll ask this one last time: what business do you have with Sakura?"

Sasori and Deidara shifted in could almost be interpreted as nervousness. "Sakura made a few allies during her stay with the Akatsuki-"

"- she was your prisoner!" Sai interrupted.

The rogue Suna nin leveled a glare at Sai. "Has Sakura ever specifically told anyone of what happened during her stay with the Akatsuki?"

The three Leaf shinobi stayed silent.

"Didn't think so." Sasori murmured. "Regardless, my grandmother was quite the medic ninja in her day. Perhaps you have heard of the Lady Chiyo? I know enough to stabilize your kunoichi comrades."

"How do you know that they need your help?" Neji asked in suspicion. Had they been followed this whole time?

"Because I can clearly sense their fluctuating chakra systems. They need help as soon as possible and you are still five hours from the village." Sasori stated.

Shikamaru glanced at Neji and Sai. "He's right." He said in a low voice.

"You can't seriously be considering this!" Neji hissed, Sai glaring as well.

"With every hour that passes something could go seriously wrong with one of the girls. We don't know if there were any internal injuries we did not find, nor do we know how to treat a wound infection. Besides," Shikamaru glanced back at Sasori and Deidara, "If we are forced to confront them, who knows how long that battle will last, and whether the girls will be caught in the crossfire. We are no match for two S-class criminals, and it will be pointless if we die here and leave the girls defenseless."

Neither Sai nor Neji looked very happy, but Shikamaru was the captain, and they respectfully stood down.

"You may treat Sakura first." Shikamaru said to Sasori as the Root member went to retrieve her body. "However you must allow us to restrain your partner, and if you make any suspicious moves, we will kill you both immediately."

"Well aren't you a ray of sunshine, un." Deidara muttered as Neji tied his hands and feet and proceeded to block his chakra paths. "_Itai_! That's hurts, yeah!"

Sasori nodded in acceptance as the pale shinobi returned with a pink-haired body wrapped in so many bandages that he barely recognized her. His heart contracted painfully at the sight as he knelt next to where her body was being laid.

"What happened to her?" he asked softly.

"She was prisoner of the Akatsuki based in Ame for 3 months. Or did you not know?" Sai answered with a terse voice.

Sasori blinked in confusion. "Ame? I assumed you were talking about the Western base where she was rescued last year."

Sai frowned. "No. We just rescued her and her team from an Akatsuki base in Ame."

Sasori's hands hovered over Sakura, emitting a green glow as healing chakra flowed into Sakura's body. He frowned at Sai. Then, it clicked, and he felt chills run down his spine.

_FLASHBACK_

_Several screams ripped through the corridor that led to the Ame prison. Sasori stopped and stared down the hall, an ominous shiver crawling slowly up his skin, raising the hair on his arms and neck. Why did the scream sound familiar?_

_A different scream screeched through the hall again, and Sasori mentally scolded himself. It was just because he was thinking of Sakura. He shrugged on his cloak and continued his way to the street level of the building, placing his straw hat onto his head as he exited the building into the rain-filled streets of Ame, heading to the village exit._

_He ignored the screams that echoed in his ears._

_Deidara was waiting for him outside the base, and would no doubt bitch about standing in the rain and humidity. The baka._

_END FLASHBACK_

His hands froze above her body.

"No…" Sasori whispered, caressing her face. "Please no…"

He didn't know what to think. What was there to say? His mind had stuttered to a halt like two trains colliding head on with each other, screeching and grinding to an abrupt and violent stop, burning and sparking with fury. Sasori felt something crack inside him, shuddering deep within himself and echoing to his core.

That scream.

The loud, painful, ear-piercing _scream_.

Sasori felt the hair rise on the back of his neck. 'If that had been her…'

No.

Oh, Kami. Please, please, no.

"Oi." The emotionless twit interrupted him. "Stop touching the Hag and heal her already."

Sasori clenched his fists and jaw until he tasted blood, forcing himself to concentrate to the problem at hand. Sakura, beautiful Sakura, needed his help. The important thing right now was to heal. She had healed him in so many more ways, but he owed her this much, and maybe more. So much more.

Bringing forth chakra to his hands once more, Sasori narrowed his eyes and concentrated on the wounds he could sense with his chakra lying beneath her bandages. There were a few infections, but nothing too dangerous. He cleansed the wounds and knitted her flesh back together, stabilized her internal injuries and nursed the fractures in her bones.

"Well?" The Leaf shinobi with the pointy ponytail drawled.

Sasori turned slowly to face them, the green glow around his hands dying out. "Sakura will be fine. The rest your hospital staff will have to heal, seeing as she requires a couple intensive surgeries."

The Leaf ninja relaxed slightly, knowing one of the kunoichi was out of death's clutches.

"I can heal the other two." Sasori offered to ease their distrust of him. "Sakura would have wanted me to, anyway."

"What, did Hag reform the Akatsuki or something?" Sai asked doubtfully.

Behind the group, they heard a snort. Everyone turned to face the disabled (and pouting) Deidara. "You have no idea, un."

Neji and Shikamaru exchanged bewildered glances while Sai (the idiot) decided to piss off the blonde guy that reminded him of someone he knew.

"You could be Dickless' cousin." He said in his overly polite manner, his fake smile only serving to piss off the ex-Iwa nin even more. Neji and Shikamaru cringed and immediately tried to reign in their teammate.

"That's enough Sai!"

"Goddammit you troublesome fool."

"I think I'll call you Tourettes." Sai deadpanned.

Shikamaru slapped his forehead while Neji seriously resisted the urge to throttle the pale man. "You have a serious misinterpretation of the Tourette's Syndrome." Shikamaru grumbled.

Sai tilted his head, still studying the now fuming Deidara. "You mean he chooses to add those unintelligent phrases to the end of his sentences?"

"LEMME AT 'IM, YEAH! I'LL BLOW YA TO BITS YOU FREAK-FACE! NO ONE INSULTS ME EXCEPT DANNA, UN!" Deidara practically screamed, thrashing against the ropes Neji had bound him with.

Having enough of this, Neji proceeded to slap a large seal across Sai's mouth and paralyzing him with a couple pressure points, throwing the limp body of the ROOT member next to Deidara (who glared poisonous daggers at poor Sai).

"Are you finished messing around?" Sasori asked with unconcealed impatience.

Shikamaru and Neji exchanged a glance before Neji leaped back into the trees to retrieve Ino and Hinata. Sasori could feel their eyes burning holes into the back of his neck as he treated the other two kunoichi, careful not to make any sudden movements. The girl with the raven hair had definitely met Konan, Sasori decided after he had finished healing the tall blonde. The poor girl was the worst out of all of them. Sweating, feverish, and slightly green, the Hyuuga girl was suffering from a severe internal organ infection, if not outright diseased. Those Akatsuki dungeons were not very sanitary.

"There, they are all healed." Sasori finally pulled away from the ravenette's body after a 30 minute healing session on her.

"How bad is she?" the Hyuuga boy (Neji, Sasori had learned) asked.

Sasori gave Neji a serious look. "I'm not going to sugar coat it. This kunoichi sustained the worst injuries of the three. She will need surgery as soon as she gets to the village. I've soothed her fever, but if she isn't treated it will worsen."

Neji frowned. "Then we should move."

"Indeed." Sasori agreed, standing up and handing off Hinata's body to Neji for him to hold. He then walked over to his comrade and began untying Deidara and releasing his chakra, much to the Hyuuga's displeasure. The two began walking away.

"Wait." Shikamaru ordered, squaring off with Sasori. "You promised us information. We let you heal our comrades, now you tell us what you wanted to say."

A serious aura engulfed the two Akatsuki members as they turned to face them, alerting Shikamaru, Neji, and Sai. "There will soon be civil conflict within the Akatsuki." Sasori told them.

"Like a power struggle?" Neji asked. Shikamaru's brows furrowed as his mind began turning its gears as he unbound Sai and helped the Root member up.

"Yeah." Deidara said. "There are two Akatsuki leaders, un. One asshole is the face of the organization, the other asshole directs from the shadows."

"However the one that acts as the figurehead is tired of being the puppet." Sasori chimed in.

"So why are you telling us this?" Neji asked, suspicious. "Are you asking for us to take the organization down while you are all preoccupied?"

"The secret leader of the Akatsuki has betrayed its original purpose." Sasori said, a disapproving gleam in his eye. "The man who sends us, named Pein, is willing to extend an alliance to Konoha."

All three Leaf shinobi looked surprised.

"Why?!" Shikamaru asked in surprise.

"Because the shadowy asshole was just using us, yeah!" Deidara growled. "We were nothing but errand boys, cannon fodder, expendable. The Akatsuki had a purpose, but he would only use us—"

"As an instrument for war." Sasori finished. "Specifically against Konohagakure."

"Us?" Shikamaru murmured, rubbing his chin in thought. "What does he have against Konoha? I mean, there are political, economic, and social reasons, certainly, but to use something as drastic as the Akatsuki…"

"Oh it's more of a personal grudge." Sasori said with a dark chuckle.

That got all of their attention (even Deidara had never glimpsed the secret Akatsuki leader).

"He's an Uchiha."

"WHAT?!" The Konoha ninja exclaimed. However the two mysterious Akatsuki members had already teleported away, leaving only dust where their feet once stood.

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><p><strong>So I think I'm finally getting back into the swing of things <strong>** Yay! Please review. I've finally planned the end of this story, so we'll see how long it takes for me to get to that…**

**ERMAGERD I'M GOING TO BE A SENIOR THIS YEAR! So I don't know how much time I will have to write, but hopefully I won't be as busy this year. Huggles!**

**Lots 'O Love,**

**~Lilithia**


	24. Chapter 24

**I know, it takes me forever to update this story. Sorry that this wasn't up on Christmas, Fanfiction was NOT letting me log in .**

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO.**

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><p><em><span>Chapter Twenty-Four: Taking Sides<span>_

She woke up to the familiar smell of chemicals and the sound of beeping machines. A hospital. Her hospital. Home.

Slowly her eyes fluttered, hesitantly at first, but soon they fearlessly whipped open as reality hit her. Could it be? 'It has to be a dream…' she thought, pain constricting in her chest. Her eyes darted side to side, taking in the familiar shade of off-white on the walls, and the pastel colors of the paintings that lined the walls for décor. 'Konoha?' she wondered. 'But how?'

It couldn't be. Her last memory was of a damp, dark cell, chained to a wall with her blood and the blood of her teammates spattered across the cement ground. Where the only sounds had been the mind-numbing _drip-drip_ of water that had found its way through the cracks of the Ame streets above ground, and the heart-rending screams of agony and dying gasps of those few unfortunate souls that had also been captured by the Akatuski. Her boy flinched at the thought of that place.

'Maybe it's a genjutsu?' she thought. But was it possible to place a genjutsu on an unconscious person? Perhaps an Uchiha would be capable of one, but Itachi would not do something like that. Maybe that mysterious leader of the Akatsuki was powerful enough. His chakra- _vile, revolting, slimy, and oppressive- _was overpowering but she could easily tell that it had been a genjutsu type.

"_Quite the contrary. He walked out of this very building just a couple minutes ago."_

'No!' Sakura thought, remembering the words of the mysterious Akatsuki leader. 'It's impossible to bring back the dead!' But his voice had been so confidant, so arrogant… Sakura's mind raced at the thought of Sasori being alive again. Already she could feel hope blooming treacherously in her heart, nourished by that man's lies, and painful to know they were false.

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

Sakura could hear her heart rate speed up along with her thoughts, drawing her attention away from her inner musings and into the reality that she still had a hard time believing in. The muffled sound of voices signaled the arrival of a nurse just before the door opened and in came a familiar face.

"Ah! Haruno-sama! You're awake finally!" The nurse, a middle-aged woman named Kana, said in the usual hospital cheer.

Sakura might have returned the greeting if it wasn't for the tube stuck down her throat. She gavwe the nurse a pointed look.

"Oh! Yes! Sorry Haruno-sama. It's just that you were in such bad shape when you arrived a few days ago that we…" the nurse prattled on as she removed the respirator machine from Sakura, who had already tuned the woman out. 'I've been out for days? _Days?_' Sakura was shocked. Ugh, she seriously wanted an explanation.

After the machine was removed from her throat Kana handed a coughing Sakura a glass of water. The poor nurse was nearly spat on as a thought occurred to Sakura. "Ino! Hinata!" she gasped turning to Kana. "Are they here?! Are they alright?! I need to see my team!"

A frightened look crossed the nurses face as she struggled to keep Sakura from jumping out of bed. "Haruno-sama! You need you bedrest! No don't pull that out! You're just as bad as the your sensei! No! Haruno-sama they are fine!"

Sakura paused. "Really?"

Kana's head bobbed up and down wildly as she pushed her patient back onto the matress. "Yes, Haruno-sama. Your entire team was rescued and brought back here for treatment. Your subordinates were a little worse for wear, but Ino-san and Hinata-san are both in stable conditions. However you all need your rest!"

Sakura's shoulders relaxed themselves and she leaned back into the sheets, the relief evident on her face. 'We are safe…' Her Inner self sighed.

"Are you hungry, Haruno-san?" Kana asked as she tidied up the room and jotted down a few notes on her clipboard.

"I could use a snack." Sakura murmured.

Kana nodded. "It figures. I'll be back with a sandwich and some juice. Sound good to you?"

Sakura smiled. "Turkey sandwich please. And orange juice."

"Alrighty then. Get some rest Haruno-sama, the Hokage wants to speak with you once you are well again."

_The Flower of Konoha_

It really was pathetic how horrible the hospital security was in this village. Did they have that much faith in their border patrols? Sasori inwardly scoffed. The most important tactic for a puppet master was to never trust your first defense. Always have a plan A, B,C, and D, and so forth.

However he supposed he should have been grateful to the lack of security, otherwise he would not have been able to sneak into the hospital. At 3 AM, the most of the lights were out, except for those in the main halls, which nevertheless were dimmed.

Sneaking into the nurses' station and a quick pick of a locker, Sasori had found himself an extra set of male nurse grubs. Without bothering to hide his face (because honestly, as notorious his name was, no one knew the face of the infamous Scorpion of the Red Sand), he casually walked through the halls until he found the front desk. He had had a vial of poison ready (only to render the woman unconscious, of course), when the nurse manning the station excused herself to the restroom in a stroke of pure luck.

Nonchalantly tucking his syringe away for later, Sasori slipped into the rolly-chair. Fingers skimming the patient logs and names, he stopped when he found what he was looking for and disappeared down the halls, the secretary none the wiser when she returned.

Though Sakura was technically supposed to be in the secured ward, it was almost laughable how easy Sasori picked the lock and dispelled a small defensive jutsu. The door made no sound as it swung open, allowing Sasori to slip in and lock it behind him.

His breathing stopped momentarily as he gazed at the woman in the bed. The light of a half-moon filtered through the blinds, casting lines of light across her soft cheekbones and full lips, her hair scattered around her head. The soft beeps and blips of the machines connected to her assured him that she was alive and well, and the sight of her chest rising and falling steadily caused a tension he had not notice to fall from his shoulders.

"Sakura…" he breathed, rushing to the side of her bed.

His fingers trembled slightly (though he would never admit it) as they brushed stray strands of strawberry hair from her cheek.

Pulling up a chair he sat down and stared at her peaceful face for who knows how long.

"I am so sorry…" he murmured softly, resting his head on her shoulder in defeat. "I should have… I should have been there… I should have done something!"

There was another bout of silence as Sasori's emotions raged. 'I failed to protect you!' he lamented, his anger and frustration raging inside him like a storm at sea. His hand slid down her neck and across her shoulder, until it finally reached her hand. He clasped it like a lifeline.

"I love you Sakura. Please forgive me." He whispered.

The shadows on her cheeks flickered as her eyelashes slowly rose. Her breathing changed and Sasori sat up quickly to watch as the beautiful kunoichi awoke.

Her eyelids fluttered a few times, adjusting to the dark lighting. He held his breath as her head tilted towards him and she licked her lips before speaking in a groggy voice.

"S-Sasori?" her voice faltered in disbelief as her mind shook off her sleep.

'Do I run or do I stay? Do I run or do I stay? Do I run or do I stay?!' Sasori's mind panicked.

"Wah..." Sakura's hands lifted to wipe the sleep from her eyes and she pulled herself into a sitting position. "But- you supposed to be dead?"

Her voice left the statement as a question. Large jade eyes pinned Sasori where he sat, freezing his body against his conscious will. She sounded so small, so broken. Could he really let her go on thinking he was dead? It would be cruel.

"Yes." Sasori whispered, stroking her face. "Yes. It's me, Sakura."

Eyes widening, Sakura held her breath. One hand rose, trembling; as if afraid he would disappear into thin air. Her fingers touched his cheek so hesitantly, so lightly that he barely felt her. He leaned into her hand, turning to kiss her palm.

A sob escaped across from him.

Sasori whipped his head up to see tears glistening in her eyes. "Sakura?"

"It's you. You're really here." She spoke in a watery voice.

In a flash Sasori was sitting next to her on the bed, cradling the pinkette in his arms. She clutched to his shirt, pressing her ear against his chest to listen to the beautiful beat of his heart.

"You're alive…" she murmured in a mantra over and over again.

"I'm here." He would repeat, stroking her hair and kissing her forehead. "I'm here."

"Sasori… in that prison…" she whispered as her eyes began to close.

"Shh I know. You're safe now." He whispered.

She shook her head weakly. "Name… was… Zet…su…"

Sasori froze; fury in his eyes. "Madara…" he growled, the vibrations of his chest causing Sakura to stir.

He went back to holding her, putting his anger aside to enjoy this moment, here with Sakura, and held her until she fell asleep again.

When the sun rose, he was gone.

_The Flower of Konoha_

She woke up feeling oddly cold. Her body was curled in a strange position on her pillow and there were tear tracks on her face. 'I feel like I dreamed something important.' She thought. 'But what was it?' Slowly she pulled herself out of bed, feeling somehow lighter, and daresay happier than she had been for the past few weeks. Glancing out the hospital window to the bustling village below, a small smile made its way onto her face.

Sakura felt alive once more. Shizune had stopped by with a spare change of clothes for her, as well as to check up on her. Despite Sakura's protests, Shizune had refused to allow Sakura to begin healing her teammates, let alone put her back on her hospital rounds. All Sakura had left to do then was to face her mentor.

For Sakura, a mission was never over- and therefore she was never truly safe- until she walked into the Hokage's office and saw Tsunade's face light up. This time, the look of pure relief reflected on her shisou's face was what finally set Sakura at ease.

"Come here you baka!" There was no bite in the words as Tsunade breathed out Sakura's name and rushed to embrace her student.

"I always come back, Shisou." Sakura laughed softly, returning the hug.

"You need to stop getting captured, girl. My old heart can't take any more of the stress you and Naruto put me through!" Tsunade said gruffly as she let go and motioned for Sakura to sit in a chair. "Did you get to visit Ino and Hinata?"

Sakura nodded as she sunk down into the cushions. "Yeah… Ino was fine, but Hinata…"

"She will make it." Tsunade assured her. "But that is not why you're here."

Sakura looked down at her hands and swallowed.

"Sakura," Tsunade said in a gentle voice. "I need you to tell me what happened."

Tsunade stared long and hard at her student after an hour of just listening to Sakura's mission report. A frown was etched onto her face as she folded her fingers together and rested her chin atop them. This, along with the information Shikamaru had brought her was… troubling indeed. However troubling was putting it lightly.

The two of them sat in silence for a long time, until just as Sakura opened her mouth to ask if Tsunade was okay, someone knocked at the door.

"Shikamaru is here as you requested, Hokage-sama." Shizune's muffled voice sounded through the wood.

"Let him in." Tsunade replied, ignoring the questioning look Sakura threw at her.

The door creaked open as Shizune opened the door for Shikamaru, allowing the Jounin in. As usual the smell of cigarettes surrounded him like an aura, his shoulders were slouched, and his eyes had slight circles under them that betrayed his relaxed demeanor. He nodded at Sakura before facing Tsunade and sinking into the other chair across form her desk beside the pinkette.

"Shikamaru. I want you to tell Sakura everything you told me." Tsunade ordered.

One eyebrow rose. "Are you sure about that?"

"No, I just ordered that for the shits and giggles. Yes, Nara, I'm sure!" Tsunade snapped. Why were people always questioning her orders around here? Honestly, did this title mean _anything_ to them? She was a good leader! Other than the alcoholism, the gambling, the desk that she threw out the window once a month do to her anger management problems…. Well fuck. Never mind. People just needed to stop questioning her, okay!

Meanwhile, as a small tantrum raged within the Hokage, Shikamaru turned to face Sakura, who looked quite lost and out of place without a doctor's coat or her shinobi attire on.

"Well let's start from the beginning." Shikamaru sighed, as if preparing to recite a long a boring epitaph. "I led the team that rescued yours, along with Sai and Neji."

"Thank you." Sakura interrupted softly.

Shikamaru merely nodded and continued speaking. "On our way back to Konoha, we ran into two Akatsuki members. Curiously, they had not known that you and your teammates had been imprisoned in their own base. But I digress…"

Shikamaru shifted and glanced at Tsunade, who motioned for him to continue.

"They… told us some interesting information."

Sakura blinked. "What? Willingly?"

"Yes. One even healed you and Ino and Hinata."

Sakura furrowed her brows. So it was either Deidara, Itachi, Kisame… there was no way anyone could get Kakuzu or Hidan to heal anyone, let alone even allow them too. And since Shikamaru did not look scarred for life and she was not covered in unnecessary stiches, her theory proved correct.

"But the most interesting thing is that they wanted to speak with us." Shikamau continued. "It would seem that power within the Akatsuki had been split between a figurehead leader and an actual leader that ruled from behind closed doors."

"That makes sense!" Sakura interrupted. Her company looked at her. "When I was being interrogated by the Akatsuki, a man in a mask spoke to me. He mentioned being the 'true leader' of the Akatsuki."

Shikamaru huffed. "Well apparently the figurehead guy is tired of taking orders from him, and the rest of the Akatsuki seem to agree."

"Wait, what are you implying?" Sakura glanced between the Hokage and Nara genius.

Both shinobi turned as a dark chuckle escaped their Hokage. "It means the organization is gearing for civil war. And we are going to help."

"Um…" Sakura cast a wary look at the way Tsunade was smirking uncharacteristically.

"Sakura." Her attention shifted to Shikamaru. "The true leader of the Akatsuki is an Uchiha out to destroy Konoha. We don't know who he is or what his motive is. Whatever the goals of the Akatsuki once were, he warped the organization to fit his own ends."

She was left speechless. "An… Uchiha?"

"They just keep popping up everywhere, don't they?" Tsunade growled. "They're like rats! You think their dead and then _poof!_ One more appears!"

"That's rather insensitive…" Sakura muttered.

"Who cares!? The other brat is locked up below ground anyway, it's not like he has super-hearing." Tsunade growled. "I never liked them anyway…

Sakura shook her head. "So what now?"

Shikamaru lit the cigarette that had somehow appeared in his mouth when neither medic had been looking. Taking a drag, he closed his eyes, opening them as he exhaled. "I guess we are teaming up with the Akatsuki now."

"Oh like _that's_ going to go over well with Naruto and Kakashi, and everyone else in the village for that matter." Sakura's voiced dripped with sarcasm.

"Then they will just have to deal with it." Tsunade said with finality. "I've had enough rampaging, psychotic Uchihas in my lifetime, forgive me if I allow another one to rear his ugly head."

Neither shinobi could find fault with that statement.

"Aww shit…" Sakura muttered, her forehead dropping onto the Hokage's desk. There goes the village to hell in a handbasket…"

_Sasori… Was it just a dream?_

_The Flower of Konoha_

_BLAM!_

"Y'know ya really should have waited until we were out of Fire Country before venting your anger."

_CRASH!_

"Ouch, that looked like it hurt, yeah."

_WHAM!_

"But seriously, someone is going to report this."

_CRASH!_

"Are you even listening to me, un?"

_BOOM!_

"I'll just take that as a 'no'…"

_BLAM!_

"Watch it! Did you _have_ to throw the table?!"

Deidara ducked as yet another bar table went flying through the air. Yells and roars filled the air of the tavern Sasori had dragged him to in the middle of the night. The man had practically walked into the barroom with a neon light that said 'Fight me bitches' and threw a figurative gauntlet in everyone's faces.

So of course, the entire room responded.

Now Deidara was pretty sure he was the only person, man or woman, in the room not mindlessly punching anything with a heartbeat. Admittedly, this was usually right up his alley on any given day. The chaos, the bloodlust, and violence. However given that tonight it had been Sasori- his cool, calm, collected, logical partner- Deidara knew that if someone wasn't ready to stop the puppet master then he would just keep killing.

Then again, Deidara would also be pissed if he found out that their asshole of a boss had tortured his girlfriend too. The blonde casually ducked as a man went flying over his head, and didn't even blink when a beer bottle shattered against the wall next to him. Instead, Deidara sighed and grabbed a bottle of Jack while the bartender was too busy yelling for order.

"I'll just wait outside, yeah." He muttered, walking calmly out the door, even as one of its windows shattered as a random fist flew through it. "Damn civilians, un."

Eventually Sasori found him lounging on a rooftop, singing drunkenly to himelf while swinging his bottle of Jack around like a lover. "You're pathetic." Sasori muttered as he helped Deidara maneuver himself to the ground.

Deidara shook his head slowly to clear his thoughts, wincing at the slight hangover and rubbing his temples. "Yeah? Well who was the one who picked a fight with a bar full of thugs?"

Sasori scoffed. "I am an S-ranked criminal with a body count taller than that building you were just sitting on. A bar full of brawlers is nothing compared to bigger enemies that I have taken down."

"Except the pink haired one." Deidara snickered.

"Sakura doesn't count."

"Suuuure she doesn't." Deidara rolled his eyes as Sasori wordlessly began to walk away. "Hey wait up! Where ya going?"

Sasori glanced to his left as Deidara sidled up to him. "We are heading back to the base, and hopefully we'll run into Itachi and Kisame on the way back. If I remember their last mission correctly, we should be arriving at about the same time, and before Hidan and Kakuzu."

There was a pause in the conversation as Deidara seemed to decide on which question to ask first. "So… Our real leader is an Uchiha?"

Sasori nodded and Deidara grimaced. "Fucking goddammit! I never wanted to join this stupid organization in the first place! The Uchiha only confirms this! Nothing good ever comes from those bastards!"

Sasori rolled his eyes as Deidara huffed and puffed, stomping his feet and gnashing his teeth like a child, roaring with righteous anger (_stupidity_). It was amusing how much Deidara hated the Uchiha. Not that Sasori could blame him. Everything evil in the world seemed to lead right back to that stupid clan.

"So what happens now?" Deidara asked after calming down, becoming serious again.

Sasori looked up at the sky, his hazel eyes dazed in thought. "We find out who is on our side. Itachi and Kisame will want to help Sakura, I'm sure. Hidan too, I think, despite what he might say about having a soft spot for her."

Deidara noticed the lack of one name. "What of Kakuzu?"

"I don't know." Sasori frowned. "Kakuzu only ever acts in his interests. He is the oldest member of the Akatsuki; however I doubt he feels any loyalty to the organization. Still, when it comes to bounty hunting he would benefit better on Madara's side, should Madara win the coming war."

"Whoa wait what!" Deidara stepped into Sasori's path, blocking him with his body as he put both of his hands on Sasori's shoulders. "When did this become a war?"

Sasori's eyes darkened. "The moment that Uchiha bastard put his hands on my Sakura!" He snarled with uncharacteristic fury, his calm façade slipping. "She was supposed to be safer without me! She was supposed to go back to Konoha a live a happy life, but the Madara had to go and –and –"

Deidara stepped away from Sasori, watching with concealed delight (because had anyone ever seen the redhead lose his composure before?) as he snarled and snapped like an angry beast, words failing him as he thought about the terror he had seen in Sakura's green eyes, the bandages across her body, the tender way she held her body as if it would fall to pieces at any given moment.

Realizing he had lost himself, Sasori paused took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

"Feeling better, Danna?" Deidara smirked.

"Shut up." Sasori growled.

Deidara's smirk widened as the redhead brushed past him. "I'll take that as a 'yes'."

"Shut. Up." Sasori hissed.

"Geez, Danna, I was just sayin' –"

"Seriously brat! Stop talking! Someone is approaching!" Sasori smacked Deidara upside the head.

Wincing and scowling, Deidara concentrated on his surroundings, kicking himself as he finally became aware of two chakra signatures fast approaching. Recognizing them, Sasori stood straight and relaxed. Deidara, on the other hand, scowled darkly.

"Every moment in his presence I just want to stab myself…" Deidara muttered as the two chakra signatures stopped before them and Kisame and Itachi flickered into view. Silent as ever , Itachi just gave Deidara a bored look, having hear the blonde's words. The Akatsuki bomber sneered at the Uchiha and his lack of reaction. The man's silence was worse than actually being insulted by the Uchiha. Kisame just grinned with his pointy teeth.

"Calm yer tits, Blondie." Kisame chuckled.

"Why you –" An annoyed Sasori rudely and abruptly placed his foot on Deidara's face and began grinding it into the forest floor with a bored expression on his face, effectively shutting up the blonde, who began gagging on dirt.

"Shut up Deidara." Sasori ordered, removing his foot from Deidara's head, leaving a boot imprint on one side of Deidara's face, while the others side was brown with mud. Coupled with the bomber's face turning red from anger and gaudy yellow hair, Kisame couldn't help but chortle at the youngest of the Akatsuki.

Sasori turned to Kisame and Itachi, catching their attention with the way his sharp and angry eyes clashed with his bored façade. "We have a problem."

Kisame and Itachi waited for him to explain.

"We ran into a Konoha team."

"You mean you actually revealed yourselves to them?" Kisame asked sharply in a reprimanding tone.

Sasori looked annoyed at being interrupted. "Just listen, Kisame. The team was carrying the unconscious bodies of Sakura and two other ANBU operatives. They had been taken prisoner and tortured in Ame."

The atmosphere seemed to freeze and they all turned to a stone-faced Uchiha, whose anger radiated with calm killer intent. "Sakura was in Ame?"

"For the past couple months." Sasori nodded, grinding his teeth. "She was underneath our feet this whole time, being tortured by Madara himself."

The air around them practically froze with the extent of Itachi's anger. Sakura had been like a little sister to him. She was pure and untainted. It was more than he could say for Sasuke. Just he thought of Madara's evil hands touching her set off a rage that Itachi had to fight to control.

Kisame looked just as bad. He eyes had dilated in an animalistic manner, baring his teeth as a growl rumbled up from his chest. Behind him Sameheda clicked its scales with agitation, sensing its master's bloodlust.

All the innocent little forest critters within a mile radius had tiny heart attacks and died from the amount of killer intent the four criminals were emanating.

_The Flower of Konoha_

"Hidan. Kakuzu."

Pein didn't bother to look up at the pair as they entered his office. "Report."

"Everything went without a hitch, of course." Hidan grinned arrogantly, slinging his scythe onto his shoulder and slouching. "The bastard didn't know what hit 'im."

"The bounty has been received with interest." Kakuzu's eyes sparkled greedily at the word 'interest'. "However we have some interesting news that we thought we should tell you."

"Hm?" Pein grunted, already his attention was drifting to the mounds of paperwork on his desk…

"Yeah, we was the puppet bastard and Blondie talkin' with some Konoha ninja." Hidan drawled.

Suddenly Pein's attention was focused on them with a laser-like intensity, Hidan barely hiding his wince. He didn't like it was the Leader gave that look. "Explain."

"Well we thought we'd take detour to check to see if the art pansies had finished their mission yet," Hidan began, knowing Kakuzu never gave mission reports, the silent, retarded prick, "And to our surprise we found them conversing with Konoha ANBU. We couldn't get close enough to overhear them, though, since they head one of those freaky Hyuuga people there."

Though he was outwardly unresponsive, Pein was spitting curses in his head. No one but Sasori and Deidara were supposed to know about his plan to secede yet! Not to mention with Hidan's big mouth…

Pein's eyes suddenly snapped up as a shadow materialized from the walls of his office. His lavender eyes narrowed as the shadows coalesced into the solid form of a masked man. Madara. Pein mentally sneered at the man, so pathetic, so corrupted, twisted by his perceptions of reality.

Just great.

"Madara." Pein greeted stoically.

Madara gave the zombie pair a dismissive glance before turning his attention to Pein. "It would seem Sasori and Deidara have turned over a new leaf… Thanks to that pathetic pink-haired bitch."

Madara did not notice how Hidan and Kakuzu tensed at the mention of the Leaf kunoichi. Pein narrowed his eyes but said nothing.

"Call the organization for a meeting!" Madara ordered Pein, the orange-haired shinobi grinding his teeth with the effort of not snapping at the arrogant Uchiha. "Make sure Sasori and Deidara show up."

Madara's form wavered for a moment before teleporting away.

Pein looked up at the tense faces of Kakuzu and Hidan. Who was this pink-haired kunoichi he kept hearing about? Never mind, he had bigger problems to deal with.

"You two. Leave."

Hidan and Kakuzu were gone with a poof, Pein pulsed his chakra to make sure Zetsu was still on his mission before turning his attention to contacting his other subordinates. Activating the rings, the forms of Itachi, Kisame, Sasori, and Deidara appeared before him, their holograms flickering occasionally.

"Sasori. Deidara. Madara knows that you have contacted Konoha." The two forms narrowed their eyes, Deidara cursing under his breath.

"You cannot return to the base. Go back to Konoha and make preparations for the alliance with the Hokage. You two are now my ambassadors."

Sasori snorted and Deidara rolled his eyes at the formal title, but they nodded in agreement. When their dark figures disappeared Pein knew that the artists had taken off their rings so that Madara would not be able to contact them.

"Itachi. Kisame. Return to base. You have no idea about Sasori and Deidara's mission, understood?"

"Hai, Leader-sama."

Kisame's form disappeared, but Pein caught Itachi's eye before the Uchiha could disconnect. "Can I trust you to side against Madara?" He asked the young man sternly.

Much to Pein's surprise, Itachi smirked. "My agenda has always been to oppose Madara." He answered before disappearing.

Pein sighed and sat down in his chair. "Well… So it begins…"

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><p><strong>We are slowly creeping up on the climax...<strong>

**My hiatus is over! Please Read and Review!**

**MERRY CHRISTMAS MY LOVELY READERS!**

**Lots 'O Love, **

**~Lilithia**


	25. Chapter 25

**So I finally kicked my butt into gear and wrote the next chapter ;) It should be better than the last one, since I finally started liking this story again (yeah, I have my ups and downs with this one, shocker right?).**

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER APPLIES**

_**This chapter is dedicated to 3S2F1B**_

_**Chrissie, thank you for getting me to keep writing this story :)**_

_**And of course, to all the other readers ^_^**_

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><p><span><em>Chapter Twenty-Five: Reunions<em>

Muffled screams echoed faintly through the shogi screen as Neji walked by it for the twelfth time. He had been pacing for the past five minutes outside Hinata's door after getting up to go to the bathroom. Upon heading back to his room Neji had heard noises from Hinata's room and had gone to investigate.

She was having nightmares.

It had been a week since she had returned to the compound from the hospital. He berated himself for not noticing the dark circles under her eyes and the dull look in her cream orbs, the slight flinch in a dark room, how she seemed to get lost in memories so easily only to return to herself with a haunted look on her face.

Was it not obvious? Every elite shinobi knew the price of their jobs. They knew what they risked when they left those gates, the price of treason, the lengths enemies would go to obtain information. They all dealt with torture in some form or another. Why hadn't he made sure Hinata was seeing the therapist? It was required for any shinobi to undergo therapy after being captured. Was he even sure Hinata had been going to the sessions? She could be surprisingly stubborn sometimes.

A whimper sounded from her room which broke into a short yelp.

Neji cursed and entered her room. It was improper, so very inappropriate, for a branch member, especially of the opposite sex, to enter the bedroom of a main house member without their permission. Especially given his past with Hinata and their age and obligations. But Neji had long ago set his priorities: precious people first, rules later (thanks to a certain knuckle-headed dobe). And over the years, Hinata had become extremely important to him. The branch members were slaves to the main house, and Neji would gladly bow to Hinata.

He closed the door softly behind him and approached Hinata's form warily, sinking to his knees quietly. Her body was trembling under the sheets, her fingers clenching until her nails imprinted angry red crescents into her flesh. And much to Neji's eternal shame, the Caged Bird Seal practically glowed darkly against her pale skin, carved crudely by an interrogator's knife.

"Hinata-sama?" Neji called softly.

She was biting her lips and whispering again.

"Hinata-sama?" He placed his hands hesitantly on her arm. "Hinata!"

She gasped and sat up ramrod straight, flinching as she caught his silhouette out of the corner of her eye. "Who –" she paused when she recognized him, her body visibly relaxing. "Neji."

He felt the tension that had been building in his back ease at the sight of her relief. "You were having nightmares, Hinata-sama."

She looked away, frowning. It was clear that she was disappointed with herself. Neji imagined that the kunoichi probably saw it as weakness, as so many would accuse her of. Hinata pushed herself so hard to be strong and perfect, to be someone revered and respect like her father, to bring honor to the clan and to herself.

"Hinata." No suffix. She looked up at him in surprise at his lack of propriety, not used to Neji being so lax with protocol.

"As your friend," Neji murmured softly as he took her hands into his, "I am telling you now that you have no reason to be ashamed of this. You survived a grave ordeal. There is no weakness in feeling pain."

A few still seconds passed as they stared at each other in silence. Pale, pupiless eyes reflected each other, shades of lavender and cream between them. They two Hyuugas could not have looked so different besides their Byakugan. Hinata took after her mother, who was from one of the main house families that was farthest from her father's line. Her deep raven-blue hair was rare among the Hyuuga, her delicate facial structure standing apart from the traditional strong cheekbones and jaw lines of the rest of the Hyuuga. She was truly one of a kind, even among her own clan.

"Thank you, Neji-kun." She whispered, granting him with a soft smile. It suddenly occurred to Neji how few those smiles had become lately.

"I was so worried for you." Neji admitted softly, making her look up at him in surprise that he would willingly continue a conversation. "Over these years you have become important to me. Those nights trying to get you and your team back to Konoha as fast as possible… Hinata, you were bleeding out so fast, I thought I would lose you forever… Just imagining losing you…"

Hinata's eyes were wide as she stared at Neji with her lips parted and holding her breath.

Neji shook his head. "I apologize. That was out of line. I should leave."

"No!" Hinata's hands gripped his firmly and she practically pulled him back down from standing up. "Please… Neji that means so much to me, you don't even know how much that means…"

Neji was surprised when Hinata moved to hug him, her arms clinging to his body. "Stay. Please."

He tried to pull away but much to his amusement, Hinata refused to let go. Finally, Neji sighed and relaxed into her embrace. "As a branch member I really must protest –"

"Screw the branch shit." Hinata growled, making Neji's eyes widen comically. "I've had enough of it! It only breeds hatred, it only results in blood and tears..."

As Hinata trails off her fingers absently trace the scar Konan had given her across her forehead. Was there any difference between the main and branch members? All that separated them was one mark on the forehead. One horrible, cursed scar. Without that seal, Neji would have been hailed a prodigy of the clan, not a rebellious branch member. Neji was the strongest Hyuuga in the clan and in another time he might have been named clan leader. The branch system was pointless.

"Hinata –" Neji tried to protest again but she placed her fingers against his lips.

"N-Neji," Hinata began softly, a little haltingly but gaining strength. "I've known you for so long. W-we grew up together. We've fought and we've protected each other. To me, you have never been a branch member. Y-you are my friend, my confidant, my rock. Please stay with me. I feel s-safe with you near."

Neji thought his heart would beat straight out of his chest. It was almost painful how fast and harshly the organ was thumping within his torso, and he had to take deep breaths to keep himself composed. It had always been the Hyuuga way to dance around words, but he could read between the lines. Half the time Hinata didn't even need to talk, he could always read her like an open book.

"Stay." She pleaded once more, tugging the sleeve of his shirt and leaning her forehead on his shoulder.

Cursing he crumbling will, Neji nodded. The smile that beamed from Hinata's face could have lit the night, and once again Neji reflected on his weakness for her. He lay next to her under the blankets, staring into her eyes until they fell shut, her breath on his collarbone. Hinata curled into his chest like she did when they were children, living in the false innocence of childhood, holding his hand to her chest.

He counted her heartbeats as he was lulled to sleep.

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

"Shit, how did Madara find us out?" Deidara cursed as they ended their conversation with Pein. He looked to Sasori with slight panic in his blue eyes, and then glanced around warily, as if Zetsu would jump out at them at any moment.

Sasori had a hard frown carved onto his face, then turned and began walking back the way they had come, returning to Konoha. "Come on, idiot. We are now the fucking ambassadors of the Akatsuki to Konoha."

The very words sounded like the coming of the apocalypse. If the Godaime was anything like Sakura had described to him, the poor old Sannin would either have a heart attack or need at least thirty bottles of sake after they approached her. Hopefully Deidara would manage not to blow up anything and ruin Sasori's chance of speaking with her. Kami knows that boy lacked self-restraint.

"Wait, he was serious?!" Deidara spluttered as he trotted after Sasori.

Once again, sneaking into Konoha was laughably easy. Honestly, they might be able to catch an A-rank nuke nin, but their security measures were nothing to an S-ranked missing ninja, especially ones like the Akatsuki. So really, Sasori thought that a ninja as talented as a Sannin should have been aware of this.

Apparently not.

"Fucking god what the fuck who the fuck let you in?!"

The Hokage gasped as she flicked the lights on in her office, arriving at her job promptly at 4:00 AM. It was still dark out, the night shift guards were nowhere near her office to hear her scream, and _goddammit_ she hadn't even had a lick of sake yet! Who the hell in the universe's omniscient forces decided that it would be a good idea to place two Akatsuki criminals in her office this early in the morning? As if the Fates hadn't already screwed enough with her on a daily basis!

"It is nice to meet you too, Godaime-sama." Sasori nodded with a bored tone, hoping Deidara would quit his snickering before the volatile Hokage decided to throw them into the next hemisphere.

Tsunade regarded them warily, slowly shutting the door behind her and walking to her desk. The poor desk was the only thing separating them as she slapped down a couple files that she had taken home with her the night before. Tension crackled through the air like lightning.

"What are you two doing here?" She asked, restraining a snarl of animosity.

"A curious chain of events have led to this moment, Hokage." Sasori murmured, pushing himself off the window and standing straight. "Allow me to start from the beginning.

"Madara Uchiha disappeared from Konoha nearly a century ago. Unbeknownst to many, he has somehow managed to survive this whole time with some immortality jutsu, and I assure you, he is stronger than ever before."

Tsunade stared at him in disbelief.

"During the Third shinobi war, your teammate Jaraiya rescued three young Ame children and taught them to defend themselves –"

"Wait, how is this relevant?" Tsunade interrupted; confused as to how Sasori knew so much and what he was trying to tell her.

Deidara finally spoke up as the redhead glared at her. "You might not want to interrupt him, yeah. He's touchy like that, un."

Tsunade rolled her eyes, but closed her mouth and looked at Sasori expectantly.

"To this day, two of those original three children survive: Nagato, now known as Pein, and Konan." Sasori picked up where he left off. "After being traumatized by war, Nagato and Konan started an organization to put an end to conflict and named it Akatsuki, 'Red Dawn', the dawning of a new age in which they envisioned the end to all war."

Tsunade's eyes bugged out and she looked like she was going to speak again, but Sasori continued before she had the chance.

"Obviously, things did not work out." He conceded with the look on her face. "Madara discovered their plans and tricked them into letting him help them. Madara then took over the organization and corrupted its original purpose, using the resources of the Akatsuki to his own uses. This is what you now know as the Akatsuki."

"So THE Madara Uchiha is the real leader of the Akatsuki?" Tsunade shook her head. "Why are you telling me this, then? Isn't your purpose to destroy us?"

Sasori made a frustrated noise. "I'm getting to that!"

Deidara snickered at the redhead's impatience and Tsunade once again waited for the story to continue.

"Now, skipping ahead in the timeline," Sasori glanced at her warily, "The Akatsuki went after the Nine Tails and failed. However instead they capture a pink-haired kunoichi."

Tsunade tensed.

"Sakura was taken to the base but refused to give up information. However, somehow she became friends with the members who were assigned to guard her."

Now the Hokage looked like someone had slapped her in the face with a fish. "What?!" She squawked.

"She even fell in lo –" Deidara's snicker was abruptly cut off by Sasori's hand slapping him upside the head.

"Focus, idiot." Sasori snapped. "When you sent the team to retrieve Sakura, they happened to kill one of her close friends. That is why she came back to you as broken as she was."

They heard a clunk and blinked in surprise as the Godaime suddenly had a bottle of sake in her hand, gulping heavily. "Go on, go on." She told them. "I just… I just need this to, uh, clear my head. Yeah, that's it."

"So Sakura wasn't joking…" Deidara murmured at the size of the sake bottle. Sasori winced in disgust. Wasn't there a rule against having alcohol in the government office? Then again, who were they to talk when their organization was led by an insane psychopath?

"Er, yeah…" Sasori drawled. "Unbeknownst to us, Sakura's friends, Madara had captured her and her teammates a few months ago and kept them prisoner. We would have helped her, if we knew. By coincidence, while my partner and I were on a mission we came across your rescue team. Imagine our surprise to find that Sakura had once again been held prisoner by the Akatsuki."

"You were the members that healed them!" Tsunade exclaimed.

"Yes." Sasori sighed at the obvious statement.

"Now _you're_ off topic." Deidara said to Sasori, turning to continue the story. "Madara used Pein as the figurehead of the Akatsuki for many years, much to Pein's displeasure. Now, though, Pein is tired of not being in power, and there is unrest in the organization."

Tsunade nodded. "Shikamaru warned me of this. I can't believe it's true." She shook her head and the two missing-nin eyed the suddenly empty sake bottle warily. "Well then, I guess the civil war has begun?" She asked them.

Deidara and Sasori glanced at each other.

"Yes. It would seem that it has."

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

Seven shadowy figures stand in a circle in a dimly lit room. On in particular exudes a cold, arrogant aura that commands the others to look upon him in obedience. Another looks on in jealousy.

"Sasori and Deidara are traitors." Madara speaks with a delighted gleam in his eye. "The penalty for this is death. Zetsu has reported that they are fleeing to that blasted village Konoha, and so it is to my great, great pleasure that I announce to you all that we are stepping up the attack on Konoha. Tonight we will raze that village to the ground!"

A shocked silence greeted his words as a figure rose from the ground before him and Zetsu stepped forward. "Zetsu," Madara commanded, "Awaken your brothers!"

The bipolar shinobi nodded and gave a small affirmation before disappearing into the ground once more.

By now that old Uchiha was practically foaming at the mouth, his eyes glazed over wildly at the thought of Konoha in ruins, now so close at hand. The other members started with surprise, and shifted nervously. Madara was clearly mad. Of course, this was no surprise since they were all quite mad, but obviously Madara was finally off his rocker. Even Hidan seemed unsure whether to be happy about the opportunity to bathe in blood, since Konoha was now harboring Sakura, Sasori, and that dumb blonde pyromaniac. Kakuzu was frowning so fiercely that it showed through his face mask. Kisame, of course, was very unhappy about doing anything the crazy Uchiha ordered, especially since he now knew that Madara had tortured Sakura right under their very noses. Itachi was as impassive as ever, if not a little stiffer than usual.

"Madara." Pein snapped in a hard, commanding tone. "That is a foolish idea. Sasori and Deidara are not worth risking our plans for the Juubi. If we step up this attack everything we have been so carefully waiting for will have been for naught –"

"Shut up Pein." Madara growled, rounding on the figurehead as his chakra flared dangerously. "The chance to destroy Konoha has just presented itself and I will welcome it with open arms –"

"This is not a chance! Now Konoha will have the aid of two Akatsuki members at their side in addition to their usual military force!" Pein scolded, not intimidated by the Uchiha.

Madara growled audibly. "You seem to have forgotten that this is _my_ organization."

Pein snapped. Suddenly his chakra flared as well, just as dark and raging as Madara's, their powers clashing in an unseen storm, making the other members wince and back up from the impending explosion. Pein and Madara were now standing face to face, their respective dojoutsu glaring unblinking and unwavering at the other.

"No." Pein spoke with a soft, dangerous voice. "It is _you_ who has forgotten that _I_ created this organization."

"Watch your tongue, boy." Madara hissed. "I suggest you back down now, before you get hurt."

Both figures went still, and the room held its breath. Suddenly color blurred as their figures disappeared, the chakra which had been building like a suffocating balloon exploding outward in a raw display of power, attacking simultaneously. Bodies moved unseen, too fast for the human eye, jutsus were created and countered before they even reached their full effect. Other chakra signatures revealed themselves and Pein's other Paths awoke and began to enter the battle against Madara until the Uchiha was fighting all of Pein's bodies at the same time. Kakuzu, Hidan, Kisame and Itachi took this chance to flee the base, the building exploding behind them as Madara and Pein brought the fight outside.

"We need to warn Sasori and the bitch!" Hidan said eloquently. The other Akatsuki members gave several forms of agreement ("Agreed" from Kisame, "grunt" from Kakuzu, and "hn" from Itachi). They immediately begin to race towards the Leaf village, hyperaware of the clashing titans behind them and hoping that Pein would stall Madara long enough for them to escape.

All the while, they never notice the lack of a particular kunoichi.

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

Sasori took a deep breath as he walked up the two flights of stairs that led to the apartment. His cloak had been discarded and that left him in a fishnet shit, Suna trousers, nin-shoes and bandages wrapped around his wrists and ankles. The windy Konoha air stirred his unruly curls and he felt oddly nervous about what he was going to do.

Her chakra was unique, it always had been. It pulsed green with natural healing energy, soothing and warm, not harsh and serrated like so many other chakras. From behind the door he could hear her singing loudly as the smell of food permeated the doorway. It brought a momentary smile of peace, and for a moment Sasori imagined that they were ordinary citizens, he coming home from work to his wife cooking dinner –maybe even a child or two chatting animatedly in the background. Sasori shook his head of such thoughts and raised his hand.

_Knock knock!_

He heard a small crash from within the apartment and a hurried curse, and inwardly Sasori couldn't help but chuckle at the sound. She had always been a little clumsy when off the battlefield.

"Coming!" Her voice rang loud and clear through the wood, starling Sasori with its strength. The last time he had seen her she had been lucid with drugs, slurring her words and mumbling softly, her throat scratchy from screaming.

To her, he was still dead.

Sasori shifted nervously as the door knob turned and the entryway opened up to reveal the love of his life. Unknowingly, Sasori held his breath as their eyes swept over each other. She was beautiful, so much healthier than the last time he had seen her, her skin glowing, her eyes sparkling, hair floating like a halo around her head, a smile slowing fading from her pink lips…

"Wh-what is the meaning of this?!" Sakura demanded as her green eyes flashed with righteous anger. "Who –how dare you wear his face!"

Obviously Sakura did not remember that dark night in the hospital, though Sasori understood that she had still been recovering from her time with Madara. Still, her pain touched him, since it was obvious that she still loved him. Uh oh, she was gathering chakra in her fists. He better reassure her before he found himself across the village in a crater.

"Sakura, please listen –" He dodged a punch, jumping to the end of the corridor outside her apartment, her green fist swiping the air he had previously been.

"Don't you dare say my name with that voice! I don't know who you are or how you know about him but I swear –" Sakura was cut off as she flew backwards into her apartment, landing surprisingly gently on her sofa, unable to move.

"Not just everyone can handle chakra strings so masterfully." Sasori said offhandedly as he followed her into the apartment, shutting the door behind him. He sat politely on another chair and smirked across the coffee table at her.

Sakura glared at the chakra strings keeping her prisoner on the couch. But as she scanned the strings with her own chakra, she felt her mind stutter to a halt at their familiarity. They were smooth like silk, strong, with an even, controlled pulse that proved the extent of his chakra control. Chakra does not lie. Sakura felt her breath catch, and she looked up at the redhead with wide eyes.

Sasori smiled softly at her and released his chakra strings.

Sakura slowly rose from the sofa and approached him. Her hands rose unsteadily, trembling slightly as they skimmed cautiously over his cheeks, barely touching his skin. Fingers stretched and ran themselves through his curls, her breath leaving her body in shuddering breaths. Sasori sat still and waited as she reassured himself of his reality.

"You –you died." She whispered fiercely, her fingers now cupping his face, locked as if fearing that he was disappear, yet her grip was gentle. "You –you _died. _Sasori…" His name on her lips was like hearing a prayer, unbelievably pure and right, "Sasori. Sasori. _Sasori_."

Sakura whispered his name like a mantra, and suddenly Sasori felt himself falling to the ground as she launched herself bodily into his arms. They twisted in the air as Sasori took the brunt of the short fall, landing ungracefully on his bum with Sakura straddling him. Sasori wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her pink locks, smelling her sweet, tangy scent, feeling her heat beating against his chest.

"I'm here, Sakura." He murmured into her neck as he felt her body tremble and tears dripped onto his neck. "I'm real."

She let out a sob of joy and Sasori rocked her back and forth soothingly, running his hands up and down her back. He rained kisses across her shoulder and up her neck, and when he reached her jaw Sasori gently pried her face from his shoulder and gave her a long, slow kiss on the lips. As he was pulling away Sasori was surprised when Sakura's hands flew to the back of his head and brought him forcefully back to her, crashing her lips to his in a desperate, longing kiss. Before any of them knew it they were consumed by a passionate kiss, tongues dancing, teeth nipping, hands roaming each other's bodies with fervor they had never experienced before.

They were interrupted by the sound of sizzling.

"The food!" Sakura gasped, leaping up from his embrace and racing over to the kitchen.

Sasori hissed as he stood, confronted by the effect Sakura always had on him. Honestly, five minutes and she already aroused him. Smoothing his pants down (concentrating in certain areas, cough cough), he followed her into the kitchen, shaking his head at the sight of a boiled over pot and blackened chicken.

"Lo mein?" He asked her.

Sakura grimaced as she turned off the stove top. "It was supposed to be…"

She glanced back at him, her eyes clouded in thought for a moment, before confusion swept into her green eyes.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions." Sasori said softly as she nodded and led him deeper into her apartment. When they got to what was clearly her bedroom, Sakura motioned for him to sit on her bed.

"How?" She asked him, taking her hands into his and holding him tightly.

"Pein revived me." Sasori answered her. "He revives those Akatsuki members that he finds useful, and as one of the oldest members of the Akatsuki I have the honor of being in his inner circle."

Sakura stared at him with doubt and wonder in her eyes. "He can bring back the dead?"

"Only if they are recently dead." Sasori clarified. "He revived me not long after your return to Konoha but…" He hesitated briefly, but Sakura squeezed his hands in reassurance, "… I thought you would be happier in Konoha. Without me."

Anger and disbelief flashed across her face. "What?" Sakura's voice rose in pitch. "Why would you think that? Sasori, _I love you._ How was I supposed to fucking live without you? Do you realize how much pain I was in? _I wanted to die!_"

He sat momentarily stunned as Sakura ranted. The thought that she might have killed herself those months without him was… It was too much for him to handle.

"Sasori." Sakura leaned over him as she cupped his face, he sitting normally on the bed as she stood on it with her knees. "Sasori, I wound rather live away from Konoha forever with you than be here without you."

Sasori sighed and leaned his forehead against her abdomen, enjoying the heat of her body. "I realize that now, doll. I'm sorry I caused you such pain. You were always so torn between me and your loyalty to Konoha that I just thought it would be easier if you went to your home…"

Sakura shushed him and forced his head up to look at her. "What's done is done. You're here, and that is all that matters now. Wait –how are you walking around Konoha in broad daylight?"

Sasori wasn't sure how Sakura would take the news, but decided that it was time to stop keeping her in the dark.

"The Akatsuki is falling into civil war. Pein –he's like a figurehead for the organization –and Madara –you met him –are about to lose patience with each other. Pein is angry that Madara has twisted the organization to suit his purposes and Madara is angry that Pein has stopped listening to him. The members are taking sides, and as far as I know, most of us are sided with Pein, since we all hate Madara –"

"Nothing wrong there." Sakura muttered darkly, remembering the evil man that had kept her, Ino, and Hinata prisoner for so long and in such pain. Hinata still had nightmares.

Sasori nodded in agreement. "Madara, as you have probably guessed, wants to attack Konoha. So in the ultimate move to spite him, Pein has decided that he, and those that will side with him, will strike an alliance with Konoha and aid your people against Madara and whatever enemies he manages to round up to invade your village."

"Tsunade mentioned allying with the Akatsuki, or some part of it at least. I never would have guessed you would be the one to appear!" Sakura smiled.

"Deidara is here as well." Sasori added.

Her face lit up. "Really? Gosh I miss that idiot!"

Sasori chuckled. "I imagine he's causing hell for your border patrols right now."

Her questioning look increased the redhead's amusement, as he explained, "Your Hokage won't be informing the village about the alliance until tomorrow morning. Until then, Deidara is leading your border patrols on a wild goose chase with several shadow clones of himself."

"They don't explode do they?!" It was a valid cause for concern where the blonde pyromaniac was concerned but Sakura need not have worried.

"Of course not. He knows not to ruin the alliance." The redhead scoffed. "Not to mention he knows you would be angry at him. Deidara has not forgotten the beatings you gave him during practices."

The pretty medic smirked evilly. "Oh yes, those were the days."

Sasori laughed.

"I hope Naruto and Kakashi will handle the alliance well." Sakura murmured worriedly, biting her lip in that way that Sasori loved.

"Whatever the outcome, we'll survive it." Sasori assured the pinkette. "I won't leave you again."

"That better be a promise."

Moving fast, Sasori wrapped his arms around her and pushed her back into the bed, hovering over her. "I promise you that, and so much more."

He had missed this view, the pinkette lying vulnerably under him, her petite body fitting perfectly with his body. She was grinning mischievously up at him, her hands already sneaking under his shirt and dragging her nails across his abdomen, his muscles hardening at the feel. Sasori let out a soft groan as he pushed one of his legs between hers, rubbing his thing against her heat.

Sakura gasped and arched against him just, Sasori capturing her gasp and using it to his advantage as his tongue swept in and ran it roughly across the roof of her mouth, making Sakura's fingers curl against his pecs.

"You have a lot of time to make up for, Akasuna." Sakura sighed as Sasori relieved her of her shirt and began kissing his way down her flat stomach.

"I intend to make up for every second." Sasori promised her with a smirk as he tore off her bra and captured her breasts in each of his hands. Sakura moaned loudly and bucked against him.

"You'll be making up for it for the rest of your life." She panted as her hands ripped off his shirt and began pulling down his pants.

Sasori chuckled as the remaining articles of clothing found their way to the floor of the room.

_~~~Flower of Konoha~~~_

This was getting ridiculous. Shikamaru narrowed his eyes as he glared at the blonde kunoichi humming tunelessly as she tended to her flower shop. Problem One: Ino was a talented singer, she does not hum _tunelessly_, but with a skill that other women vied for. Problem Two: Ino's hair was not as shiny as usual, like she had been skipping conditioner, and Ino does _not_ skip the conditioner. _Ever_. Problem Three: Her face was sallow. Her eyes were dull and had circles underneath them. She hadn't showed up to team sparring since she got out of the hospital.

Okay so that was a little more than one problem for the last problem, _but therein lays the point._ Ino was now quiet and withdrawn, and Shikamaru didn't like it one bit. Where was that frustratingly stubborn, loud, troublesome woman? Because this was not the Yamanaka he knew.

"Ino." He sighed.

The kunoichi spun around in surprise, a kunai in her hand and her eyes flashing. Inwardly, Shikamaru sighed again, recognizing the signs of paranoia that usually followed those who suffered interrogations.

"Shika!" Ino greeted with a false smile as she pocketed her weapon. "You surprised me!"

He scowled. "Drop the act, Yamanaka. Did you think I wouldn't notice your latest habits?"

His teammate frowned at his words. "What are you –"

"I can see the dark circles under your eyes, Ino." Shikamaru leaned against the counter. "I can see the way you favor your left leg. You've been avoiding sparring matches, the training fields altogether in fact. Your movements are twitchy but tired, and your smile is clearly false. Need I say more?"

Now Ino returned his scowl with equal ferocity. "It's none of your business, Nara."

Oh so now they were both on last-name basis.

"It is my business!" Shikamaru growled, pushing off the counter and approaching her. "You are my teammate and my friend. We can't go on missions with you like this. How can I trust you to keep your calm during a fight? I can't worry about your mental stability during a mission, or let the others do the same!"

"Then don't take me on your missions, dammit!" Ino snarled, pushing against his chest and making him back up a few steps. "Find another shinobi! Another kunoichi! Hell if it helps, go find some other blondie that can pass for me and maybe you'll feel better! Just leave! It! Alone!"

With each last word Ino pushed Shikamaru until he was backed up to the door of the shop.

"Ino you need help –"

"I'm sorry Shikamaru." Ino interrupted with a steely voice. "Please leave."

And then she slammed the door in his face.

Shikamaru sighed and kicked the wall beside the store. He shouldn't have pushed her! Dammit! He growled and stormed over to the training grounds. He needed to hit something, hard.

* * *

><p><strong>Woohooo another chapter done!<strong>

**SasoSaku: CHECK BABY ;)**

**NejiHina: Check!**

**ShikaIno: …mission failure- angst!**

**Don't worry, Shika and Ino will get through this (I hope!). Anyway, Sasori and Sakura are together at last! Yaaaaaay!**

**READ & REVIEW!**

**Lots O' Love,**

**~Lilithia**


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